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TO: The TPL Team
FM: Dan Leckrone

April 2, 2009

RE: ANTI-PATENT LEGISLATION --- HEATING UP

A small group of companies disguised as a “Coalition for Patent Fairness” (“CPF”) continue to waste the time of our elected officials by continuing to force legislation to weaken the US Patent System in order to facilitate their wide-spread misappropriation of intellectual property developed by others.

The CPF’ers apparently made a deal earlier in the week to at least temporarily back off on their efforts to devalue patents by giving up their demand to overturn the current law of determining a reasonable royalty --- the “Georgia-Pacific” rules --- with a radical “apportionment” approach. The apparent quid pro quo occurred this morning when a substantial majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send S.515to the floor of the Senate, a Bill which contains a variety of other damaging features, including:

- Expanded post-grant review which will choke the already over-burdened USPTO and prevent its operation;

- Venue rules requiring an Inventor to sue an Infringer in the Infringer’s home town; and,

- Replacing the existing “first-to-invent” rule with a “first-to-file” rule which rewards companies which have billion dollar treasuries and giant patent departments.

Discussions of these points and others can be found at www.tplgroup.net under “News Alerts” or “Legislation”.

It is important that The Senate and The House hear from people like us who are interested in encouraging and protecting innovation, and an environment in which it can survive, flourish, and create jobs in Silicon Valley. Our website has simple links that connect to Senate and House officials: www.tplgroup.net under “Letter Writing Campaign”. Elected Representatives’ Offices contact information can be found at the following link: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml.

I encourage all of you to write and call your government representatives, particularly Senators Feinstein, Boxer, and Congressman Mike Honda.

Please pass this communication on to others who are interested in innovation and encourage them to take action.

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