Senator Sessions Works to Stop Patent Claims Against Banks. Shares and Campaign Contributions Tie Him to Financial Institutions

Excerpt Wall Street Journal "Bank Bill's Senate Champion Has Ties to Industry ":

In late July, Sen. Jeff Sessions began promoting legislation that would aid some of the nation's biggest banks -- among them, two institutions in which he and his wife hold shares.

Working closely with allies in the industry, the Alabama Republican championed an amendment that would allow banks to avoid paying what an industry executive says could amount to billions of dollars a year in royalties. The royalties, on a technology that converts paper checks into electronic images, are being claimed by DataTreasury Corp. of Plano, Texas, which holds a handful of patents related to the process.

At Mr. Sessions's urging, the measure was folded into broader legislation aimed at overhauling the U.S. patent system, which is being prepared for debate this fall on the Senate floor.

Mr. Sessions says the amendment reflected his longstanding desire to limit what he considers excessive civil litigation, as well as his concerns about predatory patent suits.

He also has close ties to the banking industry, which has been among his top campaign contributors over the years.

... 

Mr. Sessions's efforts come against the backdrop of a legislative battle over the nation's patent system that is forcing lawmakers to pick winners and losers across the economy. The banking provision advocated by Mr. Sessions shows how members of Congress can expose themselves to potential conflict-of-interest questions when their actions support a particular industry's agenda.

Alongside movement in Congress, in recent years a series of federal court rulings related to the patent system has tilted against what critics describe as predatory litigation. Among other things, the rulings have limited the use of injunctions against firms accused of infringement and made it more difficult for damages to be imposed on infringers.

Now the increasingly conservative courts, and possibly the legislature are setting up a system where the company with the biggest ball of money for lawyers gets their way with patents?  Or even better the company who has given the most to the proper candidate.  All the candidates should love that one.

This is not a "1984" system.  (That was supposed to be an approximation of a socialist society that at least took care of its people).

This is going down to a feudal system. 

In the future we might be serfing, but it won't be on the Internet.

Think about it.  Most of the world works as serfs to some company that does not need to actually pay  enough for them to get decent food, clothing, shelter, or health care, or they otherwise have another kind subsistence lifestyle that actually makes such abhorrent employment look good.

American business is incredibly jealous about that and are doing whatever they can to fix it including flooding the American work force with children (via the anti-abortion and birth control outrage they've managed to stoke among Christians and in the shorter future with guest workers).

But they need to change the American justice system to make it stick.

The Bush administration and Republican controlled Congress gave free reign to the predatory credit industry which has done wonders to bind up Americans to work slavery, but more is needed.  Privatizing water, roads are on the agenda.  Destruction of Social Security is in the wings. 

Best of all it gets all us effin' bloggers who won't shut up off the Internet.  When we are working 15 hour days without health care, we just won't have time.

Writings from the beginning of the Bush administration and before the big explosion of blogging show that part of the Republican agenda was to make Americans work so hard that they just accept whatever is spewed out on TV news.  

That is the way to make a permanent Republican majority or at least what you might call pro-business one. 

tags: senator sessions  jeff sessions  banking industry  business  senate  republicans  republican agenda  bush administration  

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