President Signs Bill for District Court Pilots for Patent, Plant Variety Protection Issues
On January 4, 2011, the President signed into law H.R. 628, a bill involving patent and plant variety protection issues.
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According to a Congressional Research Service summary, H.R. 628 would establish a pilot program in certain U.S. district courts under which:
- those district judges who request to hear cases involving patent or plant variety protection issues are designated by the chief judge to hear them;
- such cases are randomly assigned to the district court judges, regardless of whether they are designated;
- a judge not designated to whom such a case is assigned may decline to accept the case; and
- a case so declined is randomly reassigned to one of those judges so designated.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 01/05/11 news, 11010503, for previous BP summary announcing that the President had signed H.R. 628.)