Pending bill S. 2031

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

At   the Louisiana State University website: (date March 20, 2002)
Under the title:

Economic Development Is Threatened by a Bill That Attempts to Circumvent
State Sovereign Immunity under Federal Intellectual Property Statutes.
<http://www.lsu.edu/intellectual_property/SovereignImmunity.html>

Pending bill S. 2031 (also S. 1611 & H.R. 3204) would annul many of the
rights associated with patents copyrights, and trademarks owned by a state
and by state universities. To avoid these harsh penalties, a state would
be required to waive its sovereign immunity in suits concerning patents,
copyrights, and federally-registered trademarks. An effective waiver for
this purpose could only be made by the state as a whole, not by an
individual state university or other state agency.

see site for full discussion and sample letter to Representatives the
proposed Bill is: Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act of 2002
(introduced in the Senate) The Bill S2031 was proposed by Senator Leahy
and Senator Brownback In part it states:

The purposes of this Act are to--

o help eliminate the unfair commercial advantage that States and their
instrumentalities now hold in the Federal intellectual property system
because of their ability to obtain protection under the United States
patent, copyright, and trademark laws while remaining exempt from
liability for infringing the rights of others;

o The bill also ammends the Copyright Law, Trademark Law, Patent Law.

Chuck Hamaker