The Senate Judiciary Committee has now posted on its website Federal Circuit nominee Richard G. Taranto’s answers to the committee’s written questions. Once again the committee asked no specific questions on patent law or intellectual property.
The last question and answer were interesting from the perspective of the AIA. As features such as First to File and Post Grant Review go into effect, one can imagine that there will be attempts to draw parallels to the laws of foreign nations. The last question and answer read as follows, respectively:
Question: Do you believe foreign nations have ideas and solutions to legal problems that could contribute to the proper interpretation of our laws?
Answer: The proper interpretation of our laws is that which gives effect to the ideas and solutions that our lawmakers enacted, not any ideas foreign nations have. Beyond that fundamental principle, there also are vital practical reasons for courts, in interpreting our laws, to resist looking at foreign ideas and solutions: inviting such inquiries can multiply costs, produce unreliable and inaccurate pictures of foreign systems that are not easily understood by outsiders, and harmfully divert attention from arrival at the proper domestic result, which is already a difficult enough task.
You can read all the questions and answers here: [Read].