Q&A: Judge Paul Michel's answers after USBIC senate staff briefing.
Channel: Gary Lauder
Date: 2011-09-08

On 9/6/11, US Business & Industry Council (USBIC) arranged a briefing for Senate staff about the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (H.R.1249)(formerly known as the Patent Reform Act of 2011). This briefing's purpose was to make the Senate aware of many of the problems with this horrific legislation. This is a video of the Q&A filmed by me since the camera in the back of the room would not otherwise be able to pick up the audio of the responders who were not at the podium, nor have video of the front side of the questioners in the audience. The panelists were (from right to left (facing out from the panel)):
Chief Judge Paul Michel (retired), U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
Gary Lauder, Lauder Partners, Silicon Valley venture capitalist (me (recording, so not seen))
Valerie Gaydos, Founder, Angel Venture Forum
Kevin Kearns, President, U.S. Business & Industry Council, Moderator (at podium)
Jonathan Massey, attorney and constitutional expert
Dr. Pat Choate, author, Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization

The main video of the presentations are posted to YouTube by USBIC.

Some excellent sound bites here regarding the bill from Chief Judge Paul Michel (retired):  
At 5:20 he talks about FTF not being worth wrecking the patent system.
At 5:38 he said of Post-Grant Review: "I can guarantee you that if I went into private practice, [under this bill] I could hold up any patent for almost a decade in post-grant proceedings.  It would never get to trial in the district court."
At 6:30 "It's a big setback, not a step forward, and the idea that it's going to create jobs is a joke."  
At 6:52 "Passing the bill is going to slow down the queue, not speed it up, so how can it possibly create jobs?"

HD available for news orgs.  
More info: http://bit.ly/patentreform