Bob Goodlatte to step down in 2018

Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a strong proponent of patent reform, will not seek re-election in 2018.

He announced his decision in a letter yesterday, November 9, on his website.

Goodlatte, whose tenure as committee chairman will end in December 2018, said it will be a “natural stepping-off point and an opportunity to begin a new chapter of my career”.

Earlier this year, Goodlatte pledged to work on changes to discourage abusive patent litigation, following previous attempts at reform.

In 2015 he re-introduced a bill called the Innovation Act, which included a range of measures covering companies filing patent infringement claims.

In one section, the bill said demand letters should, at the least, “include basic information about the patent in question, what is being infringed, and how it is being infringed”. It added that any actions or litigation stemming from these types of “purposely evasive demand letters” should be considered a fraudulent or deceptive practice.

However, there has been no progress on it since July 2015, when it was reported to the House with amendments.

Goodlatte also publicly commented on the US Supreme Court’s May decision in TC Heartland v Kraft Foods Group Brands, where the justices ruled that a domestic corporation “resides” only in its state of incorporation under the statute governing venue in patent suits.

He applauded the decision to restore reasonable limits on where patent lawsuits can be brought, adding that it will help rein in “abusive forum-shopping” and “restores our nation’s patent venue laws to ensure that cases are brought in judicial districts that have a reasonable connection to the dispute”.

Goodlatte has also been active in the area of copyright reform. In March he sponsored the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017, a bill designed to make the register of copyrights a presidential appointee and limit the position to a ten-year term.

In the most recent update, in April, the bill was passed in the House by a vote of 378-48.

While it is not immediately clear who will replace Goodlatte on the House Judiciary Committee, Gene Quinn, author of the IPWatchdog blog, said Congressman Darrell Issa is expected to make a push for the role and, if successful, patent reform would “almost certainly proceed at a break-neck pace in the House”.

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