House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., released...

protection to end-users purchasing devices or other patented goods from patent litigation suits. The new draft also includes language that would expand a Patent and Trademark Office program, the covered business method review, that allows for easier challenges to patents that might be too broad. The latest draft maintains provisions from the first discussion draft that would require the plaintiff in a patent infringement lawsuit to provide detailed information on the claims in the suit and information on the identities of the patent’s owner and any real parties in interest. It would also allow defendants to bring companies that sell a patent but that maintain a financial interest in the patent into any lawsuits involving that patent. Like the first discussion draft, it would also require each party to be responsible for core evidence discovery costs and it would include a more aggressive “loser pays” provision that shifts fees to the party that loses the infringement suit. Matt Levy, patent counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, said the bill is similar to the Patent Abuse Reduction Act, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in May (http://1.usa.gov/14AvM9Z). “It has a little more than that, and they actually revised it to make certain parts of it more like the Cornyn bill,” Levy said. He said the draft was relatively comprehensive, and addressed most of the revamp ideas up for discussion among the patent community. Levy said the bill was a “definite improvement” over the first draft. He had not heard of any timeline for introducing the draft as a bill or holding a hearing on the subject, he said. “I know the plan is to discuss. This is a discussion draft, not a bill, so they're still going to be accepting input and they'll introduce the bill after they're more comfortable with it,” he said of Goodlatte’s office. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has said he’s following Goodlatte’s discussion drafts and is working on his own so-called patent troll legislation. His office had no immediate comment. Goodlatte’s latest draft comes after several groups, including the Application Developers Alliance, the Internet Association and the National Retail Federation, have launched campaigns against what they call abusive patent litigation, both in Washington and around the country (CD Sept 5 p8).