The Senate Judiciary Committee has now posted on its website\u00a0Federal Circuit nominee Richard G.\u00a0Taranto’s answers to\u00a0the committee’s\u00a0written questions.\u00a0 Once again the committee asked\u00a0no specific questions on patent law or intellectual property.<\/p>\n
The last question and answer were interesting from the perspective of the AIA.\u00a0 As features such as First to File\u00a0and Post Grant Review go\u00a0into effect, one can imagine that there will be attempts to draw parallels to the laws of foreign nations.\u00a0 The last question and answer read as follows, respectively:<\/p>\n
Question<\/span>:\u00a0 Do you believe foreign nations have ideas and solutions to legal problems that could contribute to the proper interpretation of our laws? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
Answer<\/span>:\u00a0 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. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n