The Florida State College of Law Research Center Blog

USPTO Rescinds Controversial Patent Regulations Package Proposed by Previous Administration

The USPTO has rescinded a controversial patent regulation package.  Here's an excerpt of the announcement from the USPTO web page:

WASHINGTON — Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos has signed a new Final Rule rescinding highly controversial regulations, proposed by the previous administration, that patent applicants felt unduly restricted their capacity to protect intellectual property. The regulations, which addressed the number of continuation applications as well as the number of claims that could be included within each application, were published in the Federal Register in August 2007, but were enjoined and never came into effect.

Read more here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

FERPA

The Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Department of Education has released the final FERPA regulation, effective as of January 8, 2009.  Here's an excerpt:

SUMMARY: The Secretary amends our regulations implementing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which is section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act. These amendments are needed to implement a provision of the USA Patriot Act and the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, which added new exceptions permitting the disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records without consent. The amendments also implement two U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting FERPA, and make necessary changes identified as a result of the Department’s experience administering FERPA and the current regulations.

These changes clarify permissible disclosures to parents of eligible students and conditions that apply to disclosures in health and safety emergencies; clarify permissible disclosures of student identifiers as directory information; allow disclosures to contractors and other outside parties in connection with the outsourcing of institutional services and functions; revise the definitions of attendance, disclosure, education records, personally identifiable information, and other key terms; clarify permissible redisclosures by State and Federal officials; and update investigation and enforcement provisions. DATES: These regulations are effective January 8, 2009.

Read the whole regulation here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Experts Say Treasury Conflict Rules Are Unprecedented

The AMLawDaily has an interesting article about client conflict rules in the Treasury Departments bailout of some firms.  Here's an excerpt:

When The Am Law Daily read the client conflict rules in the Treasury Department's $5.5 million bailout contracts with Hughes Hubbard and Reed and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, one clause struck us as particularly onerous: both firms agreed not to represent any bank or financial institution Treasury buys assets from as long as Treasury owns equity in that institution. Experts have estimated the capital purchase program may involve as many as 2,500 financial institutions. That's a lot of potential clients.

So we called two well-known ethics experts, New York University's Stephen Gillers and Boston University's Nancy Moore, and asked them about the conflicts provisions. Both agreed: they've never quite seen conflicts rules like these.

"Treasury is being very demanding," Gillers says. "They are putting the fear of God into these law firms."

Read the article here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

CVM and Animal Cloning

On animal cloning, the FDA has issued a report that concludes that meat and milk from cow, pig and goat clones and the offspring of any animal clones, are safe.

The FDA has produced a report titled: Animal Cloning: A Risk Assessment. (This document is 968 pages long and may take several minutes to download.)
More information can be found on the FDA cloning web site here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

 

Cloned Livestock Poised To Receive FDA Clearance

According to a Wall Street Journal online report the FDA is getting ready to declare that milk and meat from cloned animals is safe to eat.

Read the article here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Battle Looms Over EPA Library Closure

From the Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online:

BATTLE LOOMS OVER EPA LIBRARY CLOSURE
The battle in Washington is escalating over a move by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to close its nationwide network
of scientific libraries.  EPA began closing some of its regional branch
libraries and one at its Washington, D.C. headquarters earlier this
fall.  The agency is not only closing the facilities, but also has
reportedly begun to destroy documents or shipped them to repositories
where they are uncataloged and inaccessible to EPA employees,
scientists, and the general public.  In addition, EPA has authorized
the U.S. General Services Administration to begin selling off library
equipment.

This week, four Democrats who will likely chair key House committees in
the 110th Congress sent what amounted to a cease and desist letter to
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson urging him to halt the library
closures.  In the letter, Ranking Members Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN),
John Dingell (D-MI), Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) and James Oberstar (D-MN) expressed their serious concerns over the current implementation of "library reorganization" plans and the "destruction or disposition" of library holdings.  "It is imperative that the valuable government information maintained by the EPA's libraries be preserved," wrote the Ranking Members.

In September, the four Democrats asked the Government Accountability
Office to initiate an investigation of the impact of EPA's proposed
library closures.  They want Johnson to halt his reorganization until
the GAO issues its report.  The closure of the libraries was included
in the administrations' proposed FY 2007 budget for EPA.  The
initiative is estimated to save EPA $2 million annually.  However,
since the federal government is operating under a continuing
resolution, Congress has not technically signed off on the proposed cuts.

Read it online here.

Plus, from Mary McCormick a link to the EPA FY 2007 Library Plan: National Framework for the Headquarters and Regional Libraries.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Whistleblower Program Needs Improvement

Whistleblowers act in many cases as the publics first line of defense against wrongful conduct of public officials.  But a recent audit overseen by the Office of Financial Management for the State of Washington suggests that a lack of follow through and an inability to protect whistleblowers weakened the program.  Read the report here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Striking a Balance: Drug Labeling and the FDA

Today's pharamaceutical warning labels contain little useful information for consumers; rather, they attempt to over-warn of every potential side effect so as to protect manufacturers from getting sued.  A new Food and Drug Administration labeling rule could provide better information to consumers and prevent hyperactive litagation.  An American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research publication.  Read the whole essay here.

Posted by Jon Lutz