Kevin Kirsch Participates in Hearing of the Committee on Small Business of the U.S. House of Representatives
April 9, 2007
Cincinnati, OH – Kevin Kirsch, a patent attorney and partner in the Cincinnati office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, testified before the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business at a hearing entitled, “The Importance of Patent Reform to Small Businesses.” Other panel members consisted of the Commissioner of Patents, John Dole, and representatives from eBay, Georgetown University, Mobius, Venture Investors and Amberwaves.
According to Ranking Member, Congressman Steve Chabot, “The relationship between innovation, particularly advances in technology, and small businesses cannot be overstated.”
Appearing before the committee, Kirsch proposed an extensive patent reform agenda which emphasized recommendations for patent reform initiatives and highlighted a combination of events which led to a gold rush in patent reformation and examined judicial trends against the enforceability of a patent and proposed legislative initiatives.
Kirsch focused his verbal testimony on restructuring the patent granting process. According to Kirsch, the patent granting process is systemically flawed by the issuance of patents with ambiguous claim terms. As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars and countless jurist hours are spent every year in litigation construing claim terms, which could far more easily and accurately have been defined closer to the time of the actual invention by the patent applicant. According to Kirsch, ambiguous claim terms further subverts one of the primary purposes of the patent system: to place the public on notice of the scope of the alleged invention. Kirsch recommended requiring patent applicants to define each claim term in a patent during the application process, require the examiner to reject or allow the proposed definitions and to hold the applicant to the allowed definitions during litigation.
Kirsch also suggested that patent cases should go before specially trained judges with specially trained staffs of judicial clerks and that complex patent issues, such as evaluation of prior art, should be decided by judges rather than put before juries. Kirsch further expressed support for H.R. 34, a proposal made by Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Calif.) for a pilot program permitting federal district court judges to volunteer to specialize in patent cases. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in February (73 PTCJ 431, 2/16/07 ).
Kirsch submitted a written testimony to the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business entitled, “The Implications of Recent Potential and Implemented Judicial and Legislative Patent Reform on Small Businesses.”
Kirsch is a patent attorney, registered to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office, whose practice presently focuses on patent litigation. He has represented numerous small and large businesses in patent litigation matters throughout the United States. He is a peer reviewed AV Rated attorney and a partner with the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. He previously led the Legal Services Department for Luxottica Retail (LensCrafters, Pearl Vision, Sunglass Hut and Things Remembered, among other companies), was a partner with Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP, and was of counsel with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, a leading high technology law firm in Newport Beach, California. He is admitted to practice before the State Courts of California, the United States District Courts of California (Southern, Central and Northern), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP has offices in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton and Northern Kentucky. The firm provides a broad range of legal services to businesses and individuals, including litigation, corporate and business law, securities and municipal financing, tax and estate planning, labor and employment law, real estate and environmental, health care, intellectual property and unfair competition and antitrust law.
According to Ranking Member, Congressman Steve Chabot, “The relationship between innovation, particularly advances in technology, and small businesses cannot be overstated.”
Appearing before the committee, Kirsch proposed an extensive patent reform agenda which emphasized recommendations for patent reform initiatives and highlighted a combination of events which led to a gold rush in patent reformation and examined judicial trends against the enforceability of a patent and proposed legislative initiatives.
Kirsch focused his verbal testimony on restructuring the patent granting process. According to Kirsch, the patent granting process is systemically flawed by the issuance of patents with ambiguous claim terms. As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars and countless jurist hours are spent every year in litigation construing claim terms, which could far more easily and accurately have been defined closer to the time of the actual invention by the patent applicant. According to Kirsch, ambiguous claim terms further subverts one of the primary purposes of the patent system: to place the public on notice of the scope of the alleged invention. Kirsch recommended requiring patent applicants to define each claim term in a patent during the application process, require the examiner to reject or allow the proposed definitions and to hold the applicant to the allowed definitions during litigation.
Kirsch also suggested that patent cases should go before specially trained judges with specially trained staffs of judicial clerks and that complex patent issues, such as evaluation of prior art, should be decided by judges rather than put before juries. Kirsch further expressed support for H.R. 34, a proposal made by Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Calif.) for a pilot program permitting federal district court judges to volunteer to specialize in patent cases. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in February (73 PTCJ 431, 2/16/07 ).
Kirsch submitted a written testimony to the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business entitled, “The Implications of Recent Potential and Implemented Judicial and Legislative Patent Reform on Small Businesses.”
Kirsch is a patent attorney, registered to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office, whose practice presently focuses on patent litigation. He has represented numerous small and large businesses in patent litigation matters throughout the United States. He is a peer reviewed AV Rated attorney and a partner with the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. He previously led the Legal Services Department for Luxottica Retail (LensCrafters, Pearl Vision, Sunglass Hut and Things Remembered, among other companies), was a partner with Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP, and was of counsel with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, a leading high technology law firm in Newport Beach, California. He is admitted to practice before the State Courts of California, the United States District Courts of California (Southern, Central and Northern), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP has offices in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton and Northern Kentucky. The firm provides a broad range of legal services to businesses and individuals, including litigation, corporate and business law, securities and municipal financing, tax and estate planning, labor and employment law, real estate and environmental, health care, intellectual property and unfair competition and antitrust law.
