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…

BNA INSIGHTS: High-Profile Breaches Spur Congressional Activity on Privacy, Data Security Policy

With a Republican-controlled House opposite a Democratic-controlled Senate, and presidential and congressional elections looming in less than sixteen months, few proposals of significance are capable of advancing to become law…

House Panel Moves to Strip EPA Authority Over Greenhouse Gases, Other Pollutants

The House Appropriations Committee July 12 approved the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, with amendments that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating mobile sources of greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous air pollutants from cement kilns, fine particulate matter, and nutrients in Florida waters…

BNA INSIGHTS: U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Vermont Prescription Data Mining Law

In a clear and resounding victory for data mining companies, the U.S. Supreme Court June 23 struck down a Vermont law prohibiting pharmaceutical companies from buying or using prescription data for marketing purposes…

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Bill To Make Online Streaming A Felony

By a voice vote June 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Commercial Felony Streaming Act (S. 978), which would make it a felony to stream copyrighted works without authorization…

Senate Approves Amendment to Repeal Ethanol Tax Credit

The Senate June 16 easily adopted an amendment (S. Amdt. No. 476) to a reauthorization of the Economic Development Revitalization Act (S. 782) that would repeal the ethanol blender’s tax credit, signaling growing support to eliminate the subsidy as negotiations continue to find an appropriate vehicle to end the credit…

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