At the first hearing, Sen. Whitehouse [0] (D-RI) told reformers that we should be careful. He congratulated us for getting a bill through the House in this sess

At the first hearing, Sen. Whitehouse [0] (D-RI) told reformers that we should be careful. He congratulated us for getting a bill through the House in this session where that house of Congress seems to determined to be uncooperative. He warned us not to get stuck in the Senate when we've made it so far even if we have to compromise; we can always try to get ground back in conference. The strategy for trolls looks to be attacking loser-pays. Democrats want vulnerable innocents to be protected by the legal system. Most federal civil lawsuits that don't involve two giant businesses are by individuals against powerful companies. Democrats don't want to reduce the chances to individuals. But patent cases are mostly by giant powerful trolls and scam litigation shops against small businesses. Trial lawyers who run Democratic policy don't think that's important enough to allow the thin edge of the wedge to get started. If the Senate changes hands in 2014, that might make it easier to get this bill through. It will make it harder to get good Supreme Court justices, though. Last time there was a business method patent case, four of five wingnut Republican-nominated justices wanted to hamstring businesses with software and business method patents with almost no limits while four Democrat-appointed justices wanted to protect business methods from patenting entirely. [0] They say every senator sees himself as a future president; how much worse must it be if your actual name is Whitehouse?