Howard Berman: “first I have to say that we wouldn't be here, not only for his substantive contributions to this legislation, but…”

“first I have to say that we wouldn't be here, not only for his substantive contributions to this legislation, but because of his suggestions about the approach we should take, whether it was in full committee or as we move towards the floor in terms of working out problems that existed, and that's Chairman Conyers. He played a critical role in getting us to this point. Lamar Smith, Howard Coble, Rick Boucher, who I started this with, Darrell Issa, Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff, Bob Goodlatte, a number of people played key roles in all this. I don't have too much time. The staff, on an issue like this, was indispensable; they made incredible contributions. This is really complicated stuff. Perry Apelbaum who demonstrated great leadership and guidance on many issues, George Elliott, a detailee from the Patent Office who is a great resource, Karl Manheim, who decided to spend his sabbatical helping on patent reform, Eric Gorduna who spent his summer working on the committee report, countless other staff, and of course my Chief Counsel Shanna Winters. But the question is why, why are we doing this?”