Washington – The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property is holding a hearing on legislation that would overturn a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting defendants from inappropriate injunctive relief. The Realizing Engineering, Science, and Technology Opportunities by Restoring Exclusive (RESTORE) Patent Rights Act of 2024 would reverse the 2006 eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, LLC decision.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association’s (CCIA) Senior Counsel for Innovation Policy, Josh Landau, will testify in opposition to the RESTORE Act, warning senators it would allow patent owners to stop sales and shut down manufacturing of a product without having to prove irreparable harm – a requirement that applies almost universally under American law. Landau testified against similar attempts to overturn the eBay decision in 2019.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Senior Counsel for Innovation Policy Josh Landau:
“Senators who support innovation and manufacturing should oppose this bill. Companies that actually make products already obtain injunctions under current law. But patent trolls, who rarely even invent the technologies their patent covers and mainly use their patents to initiate lawsuits against innovators, would be able to use RESTORE to extort manufacturers. This, in turn, would create significant incentives to keep manufacturing outside of the United States, hurting jobs and the U.S. economy.
“The RESTORE Act is a giveaway to patent trolls and foreign sovereign wealth funds whose interest in the patent system is profit, not the progress of the useful arts.”
