US Inventor sets patents on fire as part of PTAB protest at USPTO

“We did about as good as we could have hoped for,” Landreneau said. “We did it all and didn’t get arrested.”

U.S. Inventor Director Paul Morinville (hat) speaks with Acting USPTO Director Joe Matal (pink tie), Friday, August 11, 2017.

On Friday, August 11th, inventor rights group US Inventor held an event at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office where the group honored excellence in high quality patent examination. US Inventor also staged a peaceful protest to raise issues surrounding high rates of patent invalidation resulting from decisions made by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Despite going on with the protest after the USPTO denied a use permit application for the event, a source from the event reports that all planned aspects of the protest, including the burning of patents in clear view of the USPTO, occurred without anyone going to jail.

Randy Landreneau, a member of US Inventor’s managing board, said in a phone interview that the day’s events seemed to be very successful from the viewpoint of those protesting. “We did about as good as we could have hoped for,” Landreneau said. “We did it all and didn’t get arrested.”

According to Landreneau, patent owners and others taking part in the protest began to arrive to the USPTO facilities in Alexandria, VA, around 7:30 AM Friday morning and began the day handing out flyers to anyone passing by. A picture we received this morning from Josh Malone, Fellow at US Inventor, shows current USPTO Acting Director Joseph Matal speaking with Paul Morinville of US Inventor along with Roman Chistyakov and Bassam Abraham of Zond, a company that saw a total of 371 patent claims invalidated by the PTAB after being faced with 125 petitions for inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. “We were happy that we were out there protesting and trying to bring these PTAB issues to light,” Landreneau said.

“Today’s peaceful demonstration underscores the PTO’s erroneous denial of US Inventor’s permit application,” explained patent attorney Matthew Dowd, who represented US Inventor in an appeal of the denial of the use permit. “The PTO did not explain its decision and did not provide any guidance on what it believed would be a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction on US Inventor’s ability to express its views on the patent system.   Nonetheless, US Inventor took a stand and lawfully exercised its First Amendment rights in a public forum.  Today establishes an important precedent for those who wish to express their views about the patent system.”

At a little after 11 AM, US Inventor commenced a ceremony in which the group handed out awards to patent examiners to recognize excellence in patent examination at the USPTO. One examiner was there to accept an award. According to Landreneau, the low attendance could be due to examiners being out of town or some examiners feeling pressure from supervisors regarding their attendance at the event.

After the examiner ceremony concluded, inventors went to the front steps of the USPTO and lit their patents on fire. According to Landreneau, a total of six patents were burnt in this manner. Multiple major news outlets filmed the event including BBC, FOX and C-SPAN. “Hopefully, this will really get the message out,” Landreneau said.

No arrests were made despite the denial of the permit, and the police and others on the scene allowed the protest to go on as previously scheduled. “The Alexandria Police Department, the Alexandria Fire Department, and the Federal Protective Service must be thanked for facilitating a successful event,” Dowd explained.

Matal showing up to the protest and speaking with Morinville and some of the other protesters was a very smart move. Rather than further antagonize the situation and relationship with inventors the USPTO seemed today to go out of their way to acknowledge the protest and allow it to continue, although just yesterday at least some at the USPTO were trying to stop the protest without much, if any, explanation. Acting Director Matal taking time to personally make an appearance should strike those rightfully concerned about the PTAB as a meaningful gesture and will hopefully demonstrate a turning of a page. Time will tell.

 

Patents burn at US Inventor PTAB protest at the USPTO, Friday, August 11, 2017. New media (left) cover the event. Photo taken by patent attorney Matt Dowd (@TheRealMattDowd on Twitter).

UPDATE 1: Friday, August 11, 2017 at 3:57pm ET.

UPDATE 2: Friday, August 11, 2017 at 4:48pm ET to add photo courtesy of patent attorney Matt Dowd.

UPDATE 3: Friday, August 11, 2017 at 5:13pm ET to add quotes from patent attorney Matt Dowd.

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55 comments so far.

  • [Avatar for staff]
    staff
    August 14, 2017 12:40 pm

    ‘a total of six patents were burnt’

    It’s true…for us the patent system is now a sport of thieves. Patents are far too hard, slow and expensive to get, keep and enforce. In no small part that explains why the small entity share of patents and applications has collapsed to only about 1/10th of their historical shares.

    For our position and the changes we advocate (the rest of the truth) to restore the patent system, or to join our effort, please visit us at https://aminventorsforjustice.wordpress.com/category/our-position/
    or, contact us at aifj@mail.com

  • [Avatar for Poesito]
    Poesito
    August 14, 2017 01:44 am

    Props to everyone involved in that guerilla demonstration. Since the impact of such actions will be proportional to the number involved, does anyone have data on how many active independent inventors might remain in the U.S. who could potentially be recruited to participate in future actions? It’s natural to wonder if there’s a critical mass out there or just the last of the proverbial Mohicans.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 06:18 pm

    Benny@45

    yeah, and that component supplier corp lost about 2/3 of their stock value (~200m) in just one day (and got class action lawsuit from upset shareholders) only because they took advice from their highly reputable (no kidding here) outside lawfirm NOT to settle (even for 50-100K) with that crazy angry little bastard which is me
    Too bad I did not short their sh1tty stock – i just did not expect such dramatic and immediate results of my little blackmailing
    This is the planet we live on
    f%^& that sh1t

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 01:38 pm

    Benny@45

    “On the planet I inhabit, the big guys are at each others throats”

    Let me tell you a typical SV story, dude (can’t tell the whole story because I signed NDA but at least something)
    When I already sued a component supplier of some big household name corp I wrote to their biggest rival (they were embroiled in multiple court cases back then – patent infringement and all the sh1t)
    I offered them some help (sue rival household name corp) if they helped me out – e.g. took exclusive license to my patent etc.
    Guess what happened next ? I did not get any response from that corp but in just a few short weeks the supplier was dropped from the list (and practically went bankrupt) and the two huge companies settled their patent disputes and cross-licensed I believe
    The moral – the big guys might be at each other throat but when some pesky little inventor comes into picture they forget about their court battles and gang up on that poor little creature to try to extinguish him from the face of the earth
    yeah,it is that bad

    I am very sure that CEO was on the phone with the other CEO immediately upon receiving my letter despite their companies suing and counter-suing each other for patent infringement and all sorts of unfair business practices

    Its called a cartel – just like drug cartels in Mexico or elsewhere, no f#$%^ difference as far as i am concerned -they fight each other all the time but when a newcomer shows up they gang up on him until he’s dead

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 01:13 pm

    Benny @45

    try 3-step independent claim with mine

    and no, you do not live on this planet

    they do not buy any fundamental tech patents from independent inventors but rather try to ruin those inventors financially so those pesky little bastards know next time…

    and I am still married and live in my own house despite my patent litigation history

    pretty good, yeah ?

  • [Avatar for John Fetter]
    John Fetter
    August 13, 2017 12:54 pm

    Benny @ 45. You are right about short claims – up to a point. US Patent 3,156,523 to Glen T Seaborg probably had the shortest claim in all of patenting history: Claim1. Element 95. He made not a penny out of that patent. I think no one did. Improvements are likely to necessitate long claims. Most patents today are for improvements. Improvements can build on easier public acceptance. Easier to market. There are two sides to consider.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 13, 2017 11:48 am

    @Benny,

    I don’t know of any cross-licensing in the 100% mechanical arts (maybe just ignorant) so whoever is selling the patents will be taking whatever they can get because there’s not really any force behind the purchase.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 13, 2017 11:42 am

    @Benny,

    Maybe the patent has 14 line claims to get around some art that you’d infringe if you didn’t use the things in the 14 lines.

  • [Avatar for Paul Morinville]
    Paul Morinville
    August 13, 2017 11:29 am

    Benny @38. “P.S they were burning photocopies, not patents. A real protest would be to reassign their patents to Google.”

    Nope. they were the real patents. And assignment to Google has already happened by the PTAB. Even those not killed in the PTAB cannot be enforced because there are no contingent fee attorneys and no investors. The actual assignment is moot.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 13, 2017 11:23 am

    @Benny,

    Well others believe the most value in patents nowadays is in cross-licensing IoT.
    So, yes, everything you said as far as strategy but IoT not simple stuff.

  • [Avatar for Benny]
    Benny
    August 13, 2017 11:16 am

    Tesia,
    Not so. On the planet I inhabit, the big guys are at each others throats, and will buy patents to use as weapons. I can pick up a patent from an independent inventor for less than 100K and use to do 1M or more in damage to my corporate competitor, or, better still, use it to cross license a patent held by them. IOT ? High tech? Not really. It’s the simple stuff that is the most valuable. By the time I’ve reached the 14th line of a patent claim I already know the design around, but a 4 line claim scares me.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 13, 2017 11:08 am

    @angry dude,

    Yeah. Now they only buy IoT. It’s really the only patent of value in the secondary market and still plausibly valid against PTAB.

    @Benny,
    Well, I’m not married and already rent an apartment.
    And, I’m already angry.
    I’m beyond help I guess.

  • [Avatar for Benny]
    Benny
    August 13, 2017 10:48 am

    AD,
    You are the second inventor to tell me “I could have sold my invention/startup for , but I held out for a bigger payoff”
    The first guy is now divorced and living in a rented apartment.
    There might be a lesson there somewhere (Tesia, please note). I know, fortune favours the brave, I’m neither brave nor rich, but I’m not angry either.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 10:36 am

    Benny@41

    I filed provisional back in 2001 – a completely different era in US patent history

    I understood quite well that it takes substantial effort and expense to reverse-engineer infringing products and prove infringement – but figured out it was worth it in the long run if this becomes standard way of doing something
    Back in 2006 when it was granted it could still sell it for 500K or something (at least that’s what Ocean Tomo’s guys told me)
    Nowadays it is worth exactly zero, zilch, nada, none
    thanks to obama, scotus, congress, cafc, pto, ptab etc etc etc
    and big thanks to google and the rest of sv infringers crowd – from now on i keep everything a trade secret
    thank god its not that hard with embedded software – juts compiling the sh1t imposes major expense – unless they want to go criminal copyright violation route and crack my binary
    they are more than welcome then

  • [Avatar for Benny]
    Benny
    August 13, 2017 10:24 am

    “they try to hide it well of course which is easy with embedded software”

    The burden of proof is on you. If you applied for a patent when it should have been obvious that proving infringement was well nigh impossible…well maybe you didn’t think it through. And maybe, just a tiny maybe, you received a little misplaced encouragement on the way.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 10:23 am

    Benny@38

    The were burning original ribbon and seal copies they received from USPTO upon patent issue – I have one collecting dust in my closet- but unfortunately could not drive to DC on Friday to burn it
    Assigning patents to google ???
    How about suing google in class action or something, in multiple jurisdictions across the country ?

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 10:14 am

    Evanstreth@14

    “…that is a marketing issue and has literally ZERO to do with the USPTO/PTAB/SCOTUS…heck, even the US govt.”

    Dude, you totally misunderstand how big tech works nowadays
    Whenever someone publicly discloses something new and truly useful (not necessarily a new consumer product but a substantial technological advance or improvement) then everybody else wispers “me too” and starts copying without second thought (they try to hide it well of course which is easy with embedded software)
    If that “new thing” comes from little guy then they don’t just wisper – they scream – ME TOO… TO HELL WITH HIS PATENT… TROLL…

    It DOES NOT need any marketing at all – it’s already there in countless products

    All it needs is proper enforcement so it has EVERYTHING to do with US government institutions
    But that’s not gonna happen – some of those infringers are darlings of Wall Street and Trump administration I guess – too big with too much money in stock value to fail

  • [Avatar for Benny]
    Benny
    August 13, 2017 09:52 am

    Q. To what do you attribute the ignorance and apathy of the general public regarding intellectual property issues?

    A. I don’t know and I don’t care.

    For generations, the legal profession (like many other professions) has done all it can to exclude the “lay public” from their workings, using archaic language, Latin jargon, and theatrical courtroom setups. Now you want everyone to sit up and listen? Few care, because few understand. Don’t expect to get it across with a couple of CNN soundbites or Trump-like twitterings.

    P.S they were burning photocopies, not patents. A real protest would be to reassign their patents to Google.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 13, 2017 09:38 am

    Confused Pharmacist@36

    “Unite the Right” protest and inventors burning their US patents are not totally unrelated events…
    Those are just different manifestations of a cancer disease eating this society inside out
    While the ugly consequences of the Charlottesville’s protests were immediate and graphic, the results of burning patents (as striking as they are – why anyone would burn 10s or 100s thousands of dollars of their own property ?) will be seen 10-20 years from now
    Someone has to explain clearly to the general lemming population the dire consequences of US loosing its patent system
    Perhaps the best way to explain it to congress and scotus critters is to invalidate all pharma and biotech patents (followed by the immediate collapse of those industries) – so there won’t be any new miraculous drugs or treatments in the pipeline so those old pieces of sh1t will have to stick to generic imported viagra (or whatever name is used by overseas copycats – conagra, huyagra whatever)

  • [Avatar for Confused Pharmacist]
    Confused Pharmacist
    August 12, 2017 11:40 pm

    To be fair (even though the media sucks these days), all hands were probably on deck for the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” protest with all the alt-right neo-nazis and antifa counterprotesters. If anyone has seen the news, that didn’t end up going very well. Even if there were anti-Trump signs there, it would have been subsumed by the mindless violence that happened today in Virginia.

  • [Avatar for Mr. Patent Agent]
    Mr. Patent Agent
    August 12, 2017 08:45 pm

    Actually, all they had to do was hold up anti-Trump signs around that little fire pit and CNN would have been right there front and center. The problem is the protesters stuck to the actual issue at hand, and received no meaningful publicity.

  • [Avatar for Invention Rights]
    Invention Rights
    August 12, 2017 08:19 pm

    Roman Chistyakov holds a sign stating that he lost 371 claims to the PTAB. It is because the PTAB construed “without arcing” to mean “some arcing”. So now the semiconductor and razor manufactures can use Roman’s superior non-arcing process to make more durable and uniform thin films, instead of the prior art methods they used before his invention.

    I suppose Matal explained to Dr. Chistyakov how APJ’s need jobs too.

    Gene/Steve – you should do an in depth profile on Zond. It is an exasperating case of abuse and injustice. Kudos to them for taking their appeal to the public.

  • [Avatar for Ben]
    Ben
    August 12, 2017 07:17 pm

    Thanks Paul.

    While “patent burning” still gets no mainstream results in a news search, “bbc patent burning” finds the BBC page for that video.

    So it was quietly reported. I stand corrected. I still think the efforts could be counterproductive in the long run.

  • [Avatar for Paul Morinville]
    Paul Morinville
    August 12, 2017 02:51 pm

    BBC’s video picked up by all of the major news aggregators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dXIS1cDNl8

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 12, 2017 01:31 pm

    @Evanstreth,

    I see the future of my PCT app under AIA. And, it looks like invalidation especially with what I’m already going through.

    One attorney told me, “Sell the patent. You’re never going to get out of court if you don’t.”

    Yeah. It’s that groundbreaking.

  • [Avatar for Rick Derris]
    Rick Derris
    August 12, 2017 12:34 pm

    >>> than that “famous” google page rank patent

    I wish somebody would challenge that patent. It should be invalidated under “Alice.” Ranking academic articles according to citations (de facto “links) was well-known in the art before Page filed the application. All he did was take something well-known in the art and programmed a general purpose computer to perform the same function.

    And then Goolag’s ex-attorney got into the USPTO and we know the rest.

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    August 12, 2017 12:22 pm

    Ben @26-

    I see your point, but I disagree. If you’ve noticed over the summer there have been some very large conservative organizations taking up the PTAB fight. Including some backed by the powerful Koch brothers.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for c.a.]
    c.a.
    August 12, 2017 12:00 pm

    Time is of the essence to have Administration bring trillions o dollars back to U S through
    small inventors that were killed by the AIA…..using tax reform as the vehicle
    and patent extensions to spread revenue across the country and financially assisting
    in re-establishing the people that made this Country great.

  • [Avatar for John Fetter]
    John Fetter
    August 12, 2017 10:29 am

    Excellent pictures. Bring them to the attention of Donald Trump. Difficult but not impossible. Will help him to drain the swamp.

  • [Avatar for Ben]
    Ben
    August 12, 2017 10:26 am

    Obviously many in the IP community are aware of this protest. But they are also already aware of patentee frustration with PTAB. Matal was already aware of patentee frustration with PTAB. Because CSPAN, Fox, and BBC apparently decided this event wasn’t worth posting (much less broadcasting), this protest will effectively reach no new audiences.

    Worse- If it reaches ears on capital hill (outside those typically interested in IP), it’ll likely be used as evidence that no one cares. “Some inventors held a protest… Hardly anyone came, and the media didn’t report it… So you’re safe to vote yes on my new Innovation Destruction Act!”

  • [Avatar for Randy Landreneau]
    Randy Landreneau
    August 12, 2017 10:13 am

    This event definitely had an impact. Here’s a very good set of pictures taken by Julie Pixler: https://juliepixler.smugmug.com/US-Patent-Office-Protest/

  • [Avatar for John Fetter]
    John Fetter
    August 12, 2017 10:08 am

    I have respect for people who clean toilets. I have no respect for the media. If you can’t do, you teach. If you can’t teach, you work for the media. If you can’t work for the media, you clean toilets. I have respect for honest people.

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    August 12, 2017 09:57 am

    Ben-

    You say: “less than two dozen attendees.”

    That is what happens when a permit is unconstitutionally denied and law abiding citizens decide not to risk going to jail. The government wins. The fact that there were several dozen inventors who defied the USPTO and burned patents anyway, and the local police did nothing, and the Acting Director showed up to the protest will most certainly be detected by Superman’s ears… and by many in the innovation community and on Capitol Hill.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 12, 2017 09:25 am

    Can we all stop inferring malice in punctuation?

    Realize this is all indicative of English-ism.

    In other languages like German, we’d capitalize all nouns.
    In Korean, nothing is capitalized.

    Come on people, diversity. Diversify your writing.
    (said in the snarkiest way possible)

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 12, 2017 09:04 am

    @Benny

    boy, aren’t we sensitive

    i couldn’t care less about capitalizing christianity either – grew up under marxism-leninism which i hated – we didn’t have any churches around but every school had a f$%%^&# lenin’s room
    But i am especially careful NOT to capitalize words like obama, scotus, congress etc – no respect for those

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 12, 2017 08:47 am

    @Ben & @Confused,

    Who owns the media?
    Do you really think you’re going to see this story on Google News or in your FB feed?

    Same thing with numerous inventors being interviewed for hours by major news networks and those interviews never airing. Media tries to stay on the government’s good side. As is such with large corporations.
    Don’t expect them to bite the hand that feeds them.

    Also, we inventors work for a living.
    TBH this should’ve been on a weekend. Who cares about whether examiners and USPTO employees are there?

  • [Avatar for John Fetter]
    John Fetter
    August 12, 2017 07:12 am

    “Angry dude” @ 8 omitted capitalization throughout his post – jewish, russia, slavic, ukraine. “Ternary” @ 11 complained but also omitted vital capitalization. We digress. Stick to the subject. Rejoice. The offending ex-google, (oops Google), plant has been uprooted. I am trying to respectfully add to the discussion.

  • [Avatar for Jane]
    Jane
    August 12, 2017 06:11 am

    Hope those in authority WILL NOW seriously take immediate take positive action in the right direction for inventors to be issued with their patents without dragging on for years. Doesn’t the US President have the capacity to correct this for all inventors?

  • [Avatar for Benny]
    Benny
    August 12, 2017 05:51 am

    Angry,
    “Jewish” is spelt with a capital J. The sort of people who get that one wrong rarely fail to capitalize “Christian”.

  • [Avatar for John Fetter]
    John Fetter
    August 12, 2017 05:43 am

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is the equivalent to unleashing a fully equipped army to extinguish a lone victim who has been tied up with ropes made of rules.

  • [Avatar for Confused Pharmacist]
    Confused Pharmacist
    August 12, 2017 05:02 am

    Yeah the article says there were news outlets there. However I did a search on Google News and the only articles about this event came from IP Watchdog. Seems it pretty much went completely under the radar.

  • [Avatar for Evanstreth]
    Evanstreth
    August 12, 2017 02:17 am

    @11 Ternary – I fail to see how AD pointing out the lack of diversity in the founding of Google is “anti-Semitic”. More to your point, however, I fail to see why that’s even being discussed when talking about patents and not “marketing patents”. AD appears to confuse that nuanced point.

    @12 AD – I’m sure your patent is as awesome and great as you say it is…so what? The operative phrase in your sentence is “my patent”. So the USPTO has already granted you a patent, it hasn’t been invalidated yet by the PTAB, and you’ve made no allegations that Google is infringing on it. So what’s your problem? If you’re salty because your awesome and totally great patent hasn’t miracled you piles of money, then that is a marketing issue and has literally ZERO to do with the USPTO/PTAB/SCOTUS…heck, even the US govt. If you want to be the next Google maybe you should stop ranting on blogs and start marketing your “totally radical and 110% best forever world number 1” patent…unless it’s not really that marketable because it’s not really that impressive.

    @7 Tesia – Why would you burn your PCT application? The issue they’re protesting by burning their patents is the PTAB invalidating granted patents on grounds they find objectionable. Burning your application in solidarity is a non-sequitur to this issue. They’re right about media attention though, there are more people involved with the media than the protest present in that tweet. Seeing that the internet explodes in righteous indignation when a Yale professor has the audacity to suggest that freedom of speech protects offensive ideas tells me that the collective mouth breathers (who think it’s spelled “patton”..if they even know about IP) needed for momentum here are probably going to pass in favor of reading about a microagression that Jezebel is blowing out of proportion.

  • [Avatar for Ben]
    Ben
    August 11, 2017 10:33 pm

    “I’m afraid this is going to fall on deaf ears.”

    Hah! It looked like there were less than two dozen attendees. And I can’t find any mainstream reporting. Superman’s ears wouldn’t be able to detect this event.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 11, 2017 09:15 pm

    Ternary,

    thanks for advice from the lawyer which you are

    “suck it up” indeed

    btw my patent is much more fundamental and less readable to math deficient folks like you (and scotus justices) than that “famous” google page rank patent

    “Fool me once – shame on you, fool me twice – shame on me” is my new motto

  • [Avatar for Ternary]
    Ternary
    August 11, 2017 09:04 pm

    The preamble of racist and anti-semitic remarks is always that they are not intended to be so. But they mostly are. What the hell does being jewish have to do with Google being successful? Do you truly believe that to be a rational allegation?

    So your sorry little patent that did not pan out is a disappointment, despite you being a Ph.D? And a clever one, no less! Join the crowd, dude. Suck it up man. Change the system. But DONT INTRODUCE ANTI-SEMITIC RESENTMENTS.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 11, 2017 08:44 pm

    Ternary

    I am not racist or anti-semitic

    but I never had nearly the same opportunities as those pos google founders had and they are no smarter than I am. period.

    PS “diversity” BS is racist in its nature

  • [Avatar for Ternary]
    Ternary
    August 11, 2017 08:28 pm

    AD@8: You sound like some older and abhorrent times in a place I don’t want to be in. These remarks have no place in a decent forum.

  • [Avatar for angry dude]
    angry dude
    August 11, 2017 08:17 pm

    google was started by the jewish immigrant from russia and another jewish dude living here in US and they got their first investment (blank check) from another jewish guy…
    I do not see much diversity here…

    PS I am a “slavic” russian from ukraine and I feel like a third rate sh1t in this country despite all my phds and patent

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 11, 2017 07:04 pm

    @Confused Pharmacist,

    I hate that I wasn’t there. Maybe I should make a video burning my pending PCT application or a prototype of my invention.
    “I’m with US Inventors. F*** your diversity BS and LISTEN to them. Google is EVIL!!”

    If people think it’d make a difference then I 100% will do it. It’s the weekend now. I’m off.
    Actually, I’m only 3 hours drive from Detroit USPTO.

    This is also the same problem with DoD and other government agencies stealing inventions from white males for the past 50 years.
    No one cares. It’s all about women and minorities getting set asides.

    I’m hoping that I can change that.

    Everyone struggles and we need to see people as individuals not as part of a group based on race or sex.

    Why should people care that I’m a minority female inventor when I have the problems of a white male inventor, and vice versa? Why do people care who speaks about the problems?

  • [Avatar for Confused Pharmacist]
    Confused Pharmacist
    August 11, 2017 06:47 pm

    Tesia,

    Yeah it’s not going to make Google very happy, especially seeing that one guy with the cowboy hat! That’s precise the image that people in Google actively despise.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 11, 2017 06:40 pm

    That’s the problem with this whole diversity crap.

  • [Avatar for Confused Pharmacist]
    Confused Pharmacist
    August 11, 2017 06:38 pm

    I’m afraid this is going to fall on deaf ears. With the whole Google diversity memo thing going on, and if the pictures above are representative of those that protested, those in power won’t care too much for mostly white male inventors. Just sayin…

  • [Avatar for Ron Nesson]
    Ron Nesson
    August 11, 2017 05:20 pm

    Sometimes you have to light a fire to get the public’s attention. It is most unfortunate that inventors have to go to this length to draw attention to the current plight that America is facing in getting their intellectual property legitimized. The rest of the world must be laughing at the stupidity of the current predicament the US Congress has put our country in. There is too much at stake to not step up and expose this dangerous and deleterious situation we are facing.

  • [Avatar for Tesia Thomas]
    Tesia Thomas
    August 11, 2017 04:42 pm

    AWESOME!

    Couldn’t make it due to lack of PTO but I’m happy it all went well.

  • [Avatar for Judge Rich's Ghost]
    Judge Rich’s Ghost
    August 11, 2017 04:23 pm

    Here is a better picture of the patent burning: https://twitter.com/TheRealMattDowd/status/896081275777306624