To restore Federal remedies for infringements of intellectual property by States, and for other purposes

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

Bill was introduced June 5, HR2344, House Judiciary Subcommittee on
Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property met 17th on the issue of
copyright infringement by states. Witness list:

http://www.house.gov/judiciary/courts061703.htm

Honorable Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, Copyright Office of the
United States, The Library of Congress; Leslie Winner, General Counsel and
Vice President, University of North Carolina;Mark Bohannon, General
Counsel and Senior Vice President for Public Policy on behalf of Software
and Information Industry Association;Paul Bender, Professor of Law,
Arizona State University Law School.

"Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act of 2003."
To restore Federal remedies for infringements of intellectual property by
States, and for other purposes

>From the text of the bill:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:h.r.2344:

(a) AMENDMENT TO PATENT LAW- Section 287 of title 35, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following:`(d)(1) No remedies under
section 284 or 289 shall be awarded in any civil action brought under this
title for infringement of a patent issued on or after January 1, 2004, if
a State or State instrumentality is or was at any time the legal or
beneficial owner of such patent, except upon proof that--`(A) on or before
the date the infringement commenced or January 1, 2006, whichever is
later, the State has waived its immunity, under the eleventh amendment of
the United States Constitution and under any other doctrine of sovereign
immunity, from suit in Federal court brought against the State or any of
its instrumentalities, for any infringement of intellectual property
protected under Federal law; and`(B) such waiver was made in accordance
with the constitution and laws of the State, and remains effective.

>From AAU CFR Weekly Wrap Up. June 6
http://www.aau.edu/publications/Wrapup6.6.03.html
HOUSE MEMBERS PLAN TO REINTRODUCE BILL ON STATE SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY AND HOLD
JUNE 12 HEARING 

Reps. Lamar Smith (R-MI) and Howard Berman (D-CA) plan to reintroduce
legislation dealing with state sovereign immunity and federal intellectual
property law. Following introduction of the new bill, the two Members plan
to hold a hearing on the issue on June 12 at 10:00 a.m. in the
Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, which Mr.
Smith chairs. The university witness will be David Harrison, Associate
Vice President for Legal Affairs for the University of North Carolina
system.  The new bill is expected to be very similar to H.R. 3204, the
Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act of 2001, introduced last
session by Reps. Howard Coble (R-VA) and Berman as companion legislation
to S. 2031, introduced last year in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy
(D-VT).  The issue of sovereign immunity arose when the Supreme Court
decided that, for constitutional reasons, states could not be sued under
federal intellectual property laws for intellectual property infringement.
State universities, as entities of the states, were included under this
"sovereign immunity," meaning that they, too, could not be sued for
intellectual property rights infringement. However, like states, state
universities still could sue other entities in federal court for
intellectual property infringement. Sen. Leahy and Rep. Coble introduced
their legislation with the goal of requiring states to waive their
sovereign immunity regarding intellectual property if they wish to
continue to be able to sue under the federal intellectual property system.
States not agreeing to waive sovereign immunity would not be granted
federal intellectual property rights.

N.B. I think this means states not waiving sovereign immunity could lose
the right to enforce patents, copyrights or trademarks.