[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 149 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 149

  To amend section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 to permit the United 
   States to respond to the actions of countries that do not provide 
  adequate and effective patent protection to United States nationals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 21 (legislative day, January 5), 1993

Mr. Rockefeller (for himself, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Hatch, and Mr. Wofford) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                          Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 to permit the United 
   States to respond to the actions of countries that do not provide 
  adequate and effective patent protection to United States nationals.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``International Protection of Patent 
Rights Act of 1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
            (1) Several countries (including Brazil, India, Indonesia, 
        Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Thailand) maintain patent 
        systems that effectively deny adequate and effective patent 
        protection to United States nationals because of--
                    (A) unreasonable delays in granting or enforcing 
                patents,
                    (B) pre-grant opposition to patent applications,
                    (C) unnecessarily narrow interpretations of patent 
                claims by the authorities which determine patent 
                validity and infringement, and
                    (D) other policies and practices.
            (2) The lack of adequate and effective patent protection in 
        these countries denies fair and equitable market access to 
        United States nationals that rely upon intellectual property 
        rights protection.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to amend the Trade Act of 
1974 to respond to the actions of countries that do not provide 
adequate and effective patent protection to United States nationals.

SEC. 3. IDENTIFICATION OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

    Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2242) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1)--
                    (A) by striking ``or'' at the end of subparagraph 
                (A),
                    (B) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph 
                (B) and inserting ``or'', and
                    (C) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the 
                following new subparagraph:
                    ``(C) deny adequate substantive standards, and'';
            (2) in subsection (b)(1)(A)--
                    (A) by striking ``or'' at the end of clause (i),
                    (B) by inserting ``or'' at the end of clause (ii), 
                and
                    (C) by inserting after clause (ii) the following 
                new clause:
                            ``(iii) deny adequate substantive 
                        standards,'';
            (3) by adding at the end of subsection (d), the following 
        new paragraph:
            ``(4) A foreign country denies adequate substantive 
        standards if the country enforces or permits procedures under 
        its patent approval system that result in, among other 
        practices--
                    ``(A) patent applications being subject to pre-
                grant opposition,
                    ``(B) extended deferral (beyond 3 years) of patent 
                examination,
                    ``(C) an inordinately long period of time for 
                patent application approval,
                    ``(D) an inordinately short patent term measured 
                either from the date of grant or from the date of 
                filing,
                    ``(E) an inordinate delay in obtaining judicial 
                review or unavailability of judicial review for patent 
                applications that are denied, or
                    ``(F) unnecessarily narrow interpretations of 
                patent claims by the authorities which determine patent 
                validity and infringement.''; and
            (4) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the following 
        new sentence: ``Such publication shall include information with 
        respect to any act, policy, or practice identified under 
        subsection (a) and information with respect to any action taken 
        (or the reasons for not taking action) to eliminate such act, 
        policy, or practice.''.

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