Congress in '07: Privacy, patents on agenda

Many technology advocates expect Democrats will focus on backburner issues under Republicans

But the U.S. Supreme Court may have pre-empted Congress on the issue of patent injunctions. In a May, the court set aside a lower court decision to stop eBay from using the "buy it now" feature on its Web site because of a patent dispute. The Supreme Court ruled that a lower court must weigh several factors before granting a patent junction, instead of granting near-automatic injunctions as in recent years.

After the Supreme Court action, Congress' attention is likely to focus on the quality of patents granted, an issue that has wide support in the patent community. Tech groups have pushed for more money for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a post-patent review process as a way to challenge patents.

Some small inventors agree that better patent examinations are needed, but they have objected to other proposals pushed by tech groups, including changing the way patents are awarded.

Many companies pushing for patent reform "are doing their best to eviscerate America's patent system to avoid the consequences of their politely put unauthorized use of inventors' property," said Ronald Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance.

Large pharmaceutical firms also have fought patent reform, but Christopher Hankin, senior director of federal affairs at Sun Microsystems Inc., said he expects the Democratic Congress will be less cozy with big pharma than many Republicans are.

"We could work these issues out," he said of the patent debates. "Unfortunately, we never got to the situation where the other side felt the need to negotiate."

Broadband reform and network neutrality

Two committees spent many hours in 2006 working on broadband bills with the goal of encouraging broadband adoption and improving services offered. But Congress failed to agree on a final bill before adjourning this month, partly because of a contentious debate about net neutrality provisions that would prohibit broadband providers from giving preferential treatment to their own Web content and blocking or slowing competitors' content.

Then, in mid-December, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to streamline the franchising process that broadband providers must go through to offer television over IP (Internet Protocol), in competition with cable TV providers. Franchising reform was one of the major drivers of the 2006 broadband bills, and after the FCC action, lawmakers may have less enthusiasm to tackle a wide-ranging broadband bill.

Officials from Verizon Communications Inc., one of the major backers of franchise reform, say they will back away from the issue in Congress in 2007, focusing instead on state legislation and on rule making at the FCC.

But individual pieces of the broadband bills may still move forward. Net neutrality ended up as a largely partisan issue, with Democrats generally supporting a law, and some on their side will likely push the issue again. But it's still hotly debated, and Republicans in the Senate could use parliamentary rules to hold up a net neutrality bill, just as Democrats held up the broadband bill in 2006, warned one Senate Republican staffer, speaking on background.