Last report on the S507 bill in the Senate was that after Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the bill, Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Missouri) put a "hold" on the bill. A hold means the bill can't be voted on until the hold is released. Senator Bond is the Chairman of the Small Business Committee. It appeared to him that there may be some harmful affects (of the bill) to the small business community. In this editor's opinion, that is a large understatement.
Anyway, Senator Hatch tried to pull one of the sneakiest moves available to a Congressman after Kit Bond put the hold on it. He tried to remove it from "Senate Bill" status and attempted to hang it onto the combined Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations bill as an amendment!! It was not likely that anyone was going to vote against that bill because no politician in his right mind is going to vote "no" on funding for projects in his own State. He is desperate to deal around the opposition to his bill.
But sanity prevailed and he was not permitted to hang the huge, Five Part, Omnibus Patent Reform Bill onto the coattails of a bill that was sure to pass. For his withdrawing that sneaky attempt, however, Hatch was promised a vote on the bill sometime this fall.
Perhaps that was all he was after in the first place, considering the enormous amount of opposition to the bill from Universities, Small Businesses and Inventor Groups. The only ones who support Hatch's reform bill are the members of IPO (Fortune 500 multinationals), the AIPLA (patent litigation lawyers), and our political appointee, Commissioner of the patent office, Bruce Lehman along with his personal foreign interest connections, like the Japanese.
This is the same Senator Hatch who proposed a "No Gambling" zone around schools large enough to shut down the Las Vegas Strip and some Northern Nevada resort hotels. Also the same Senator Hatch who allowed President Clinton to declare a National Park where the only coal reserves competitive to the Malaysian coal imports existed in the U.S. We are now committed to the Malaysians to buy their coal into the unforeseeable future. I wonder why the Malaysian campaign contributions to Clinton were so large? Unfortunately for us, the support Hatch does have are the most financially powerful forces on the planet. No one ever accused he and Lehman of being stupid, just selfish and arrogant.
Do you realize how many years the independent inventors have been fighting this type of destructive legislation? In 1989 we fought to have the patent commissioner's nomination of Douglas Comer rejected on the grounds that he wasn't a patent attorney, just an attorney. We succeeded, but got the devil instead; Harry Manbeck, from GE. Manbeck immediately proposed changing the whole system to First to File from the 200 year old American system of First to Invent. His reasoning (my supposition) was that since the Japanese used that system, and it favored the big business interests, the Japanese would be friendly to a retiring patent office Commissioner looking for a lucrative job as a lobbyist.
Well, we organized quickly, sent a hell of a lot of letters to Congressmen, wrote articles and made speeches enough to kill the proposed bill before it got out of Committee.
The next two years were mostly fighting the proposed fee increases by Manbeck, the proposal to start patent term from "filing" instead of "issue" (by Manbeck) Until I got fed up and sent that flaming open letter to Manbeck (copy in August 1991 NIA newsletter) accusing him of being a foreign tool and the epitome of bureaucratic arrogance. My lawyer made me take out the word "Treason" because I'd have to prove it, and if it were true he'd have to be shot.
Anyway, that's the way it's been for seven years -- a constant battle to call attention to Congress and inventors about the legislation that Congressmen like DeConcini, Hughs, Moorhead, Schroeder, Lofgren, Coble and now Hatch, keep introducing to curry favor with big business and the Japanese for fat lobbying or consulting contracts after they retire.
This is the first time in those seven years that that horrible legislation has made it out of Committee and onto the floor of the House and Senate. In this David and Goliath battle the odds are tipping in favor of Goliath. Mostly because of the financial power of the big business and foreign lobbies. (and the apathy of inventors themselves) Far too few register their opposition to S507 to their Senators. The only hope we have now of defeating this most unnecessary bill is to make our wishes known to our Senators. It has already passed in the House, by a "quick and dirty" floor voice vote before the amendments were debated. (still a mystery how that happened so fast)
What we would really hope for, is a fair and impartial hearing by a Senate Fact Finding Committee. That is not an impossible request. That way, Senators can look good to their constituents and still block the vote without opposing anything. (See resource directory for phone numbers and addresses)
This is no time to be wishy-washy. Write, Call, E-mail or Fax. But do it!
Brad Hollander, one of our newest members and last month's speaker, donated a set of the
That was a very generous gift and it would be appropriate to give Brad a "thanks" the next time you see him. Brad is aware that we don't have our lending library set up yet, but that didn't deter him from offering to share something of value anyway.
The Region 17 Guide covers all of Northern California, including San Jose and San Francisco, plus Western Nevada. It is a compendium of industrial services, products, suppliers, manufacturers and sales reps that is complete and up to date. Whether it's Bearings, Oils, Tools or a cold beer, this guide is where you look first... There are 19 "guides" covering the U.S. and even though this is but one of them, the information for all 19 is available on the internet. So with this information, you can literally access industrial information all over America.
How easy it is to keep something like that for our own private use and just not even mention to others it is available. This way, information usually not available to an inventor until he becomes a manufacturer or wholesaler, is freely offered because a person believes in the motto "Inventors Helping Inventors." Brad is the kind that makes networking really work.
So that brings up the subject again about how can we make the wealth of information and material we have available to other inventors? Brad isn't the only one who has books and/or materials that other inventors need. Many of us have a great many books in our personal libraries that are extremely valuable to the poor guy seeking names and phone numbers, but no idea of where to turn.
The time is right for someone to step forward and volunteer to keep these things at their home or office, so
members of NIA can check them out and use the information to their advantage. I know that I personally have many
books and tapes I would be happy to donate to such a good cause. There are video tapes, books, pamphlets, examples
of patents, patent drawing guides, a complete collection of the NIA newsletters, etc. All available for folks who
need the help. Not to mention the photos of club activities we have and the ones you guys are going to take at
this picnic, right? Let's git it onnn!..., as Mills Lane would say.
Nevada Office of Science, Engineering & Technology
Dr. Diana Weigmann, Director
http://www.state.nv.us/oset/
Nevada Small Business Development Center
Sam Males, Director
http://www.scs.unr.edu/nsbdc/
The Honorable Jim Gibbons
Representative from Nevada, District Two
http://www.house.gov/gibbons/
September 23 -- 25, 1997 WESTPAK
Anaheim Convention Cntr., Anaheim, CA
Features machinery, supplies, equipment, materials and services for the Packaging industry.
Contact: Reed Exhibition
383 Main Street, Norwalk, CT 06851
(203) 840-4800
October 8 -- 9, 1997 Northern California Material Handling
and Packaging Show
Santa Clara Convention Cntr., Santa Clara, CA
Features packaging equipment, services and supplies.
Contact: Professional Trade Shows
47361 Bayside Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538
(415) 964-2050
First, obviously, support your Association Officers. They work to educate, protect, help and entertain the members
of NIA.
There will be a election of Trustees at the September meeting. Tony Patti, Dr. Torch and Len Schweitzer are the
nominating committee. You'll probably see them at the picnic, so if you can spare a little time each month to help
on a committee, tell them so.
Blessed are the volunteers, for they shall be given wisdom & kept in the loop.
Make an effort to supply information to your newsletter editor. It is tough to come up with enough material all
by himself to fill the newsletter each month. Give him a hand with suggestions and news items. If three or four
committee members would give a committee report on their activities, the newsletter would practically write itself.
And you wouldn't have to put up with those long editorials about political dragons.
We've got an opportunity to put a permanent display at the new UNR Education building. If we build a NIA kiosk
so that it is dismantelable (is there such a word?) we could move it to places like the Fair, the Airport, the
Library, Trade Shows, Special Events, etc.
A couple of good videos of the members and their activities or inventions would be welcome on public TV or a booths
in shows.
Anyway, you get the picture... There's an old cliche` about when you help someone or some group, it always seems
to be as rewarding to the "givor" as the "givee."
Page done by Vince Chemist.
Made September 24, 1997
Updated on November 29, 2005