Internet Privacy Bills Unlikely to Move in 2012, But Chances Better for Cybersecurity Legislation

Online privacy is expected to remain a hot topic in 2012, but it is unlikely that Congress will enact any major reforms in such a complex and unsettled area during an election year, observers tell Bloomberg BNA…

House Approves Omnibus Spending Bill With Environmental, Energy Policy Riders

The House approved a $1.043 trillion, nine-bill omnibus package to fund the federal government for the rest of 2012…

PTO’s FY 2012 Budget Signed into Law; Access to All Collected Fees Still in Doubt

Congress approved Nov. 17 “minibus” appropriations legislation that includes funding for the Patent and Trademark Office matching its projected fee collections…

BNA INSIGHTS: Volcker Rule Proposal Highlights Regulatory Challenges to Implementation

The Volcker Rule was designed to address a major concern about the investment banking business: that commercial financial institutions not be allowed to engage in proprietary trading by using customers’ deposits to trade on the bank’s own account…

Introduction of House Online Piracy Legislation Sets Off Storm of Controversy

Within minutes of the announcement of the introduction on Oct. 26 of the Stop Online Piracy Act, there was a flurry of statements from supporters and, particularly, from detractors denouncing the legislation…

BNA INSIGHTS: The America Invents Act: How Does It Strengthen the Patent System?

The author outlines the key provisions of the recently enacted patent reform legislation…

California Becomes Seventh State With Law Limiting Credit Report Use In Employment

Just before a midnight deadline, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) Oct. 9 signed a bill (A.B. 22) that limits employer use of credit reports to evaluate employees or applicants, making California the seventh state with such a law on the books…

BNA INSIGHTS: Patent Litigation at the PTO under the America Invents Act of 2011

On Sept. 16, President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (H.R. 1249) into law. The signing followed the Sept. 8 passage in the U.S. Senate of the House bill by vote of 89-9, without amendment…

BNA INSIGHTS: Texas Amendments Purport to Apply Breach Notification Law to Cover 50 States, And to Expand Health Care Privacy Law’s Requirements and Scope of Applicability

In a bill quietly passed by the Texas Legislature at the end of May, the state made quite a change for businesses countrywide…

House Republicans Seek to Deny EPA Use of Appropriated Funds for Climate Programs

The House July 27 approved a measure that would halve funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas reporting registry in fiscal year 2012 and another that would transfer $50 million from EPA’s Climate Change Program to the Great Lakes Restoration initiative, two of a series of amendments being offered to a bill (H.R. 2584) to fund EPA and related agencies…

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