Congress Revisits Sovereign
Immunity and Intellectual Property Law
June 20, 2003 - The House Judiciary Subcommittee on
Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property June 17 held
a hearing to consider proposed legislation (H.R.
2344) that would require states to waive their 11th Amendment
"sovereign immunity" protection from liability for
intellectual property infringement under federal law. States
not waiving this protection would in turn lose the ability
to defend their own patents or copyrights in federal court.
A companion Senate measure, S.
1191, revisits the issue first considered by the Senate
last year. Both bills seek to remedy a 1999 Supreme Court
ruling, known as "Florida Prepaid," which
first extended the states' immunity to federal intellectual
property law.
Leslie Winner, vice president and general counsel of the
University of North Carolina, testified
on behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU),
the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant
Colleges (NASULGC), and the American Council of Education
(ACE). Ms. Winner noted that there is no evidence that state
universities have systematically infringed on intellectual
property since the Florida Prepaid rulings. Moreover,
the potential loss of state institutions' intellectual property
protection could profoundly damage tech transfer initiatives
that are widely considered to bring important economic and
social benefits to their communities and the nation.
Information:
Stephen Heinig, Lead Science Policy Analyst
AAMC Biomedical Health Sciences Research
sheinig@aamc.org
(202) 828-0488
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