Pat Choate and Hank Nothhaft, at the Met Club, June 14, 2011.
I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of Great Again several months before it became available. I have also had the pleasure of getting to know Hank Nothhaft and his co-author David Kline over the past year or so, frequently exchanging e-mails discussing a variety of innovation and patent related issues. It has been exceptionally difficult to keep quiet knowing what Hank and David were writing about, and then reading the nearly finished manuscript. Simply put, everyone in the innovation industry and patent community needs to read Great Again. Every Staffer on Capitol Hill and everyone working in the White House needs to read Great Again. While Members of Congress are no doubt busy with a great many things, they too should read Great Again, but at the very least Members of Congress and those in the Executive Branch, including President Obama, should at a minimum read the Introduction, which is just 12 pages long.
I seem to have started a firestorm by writing a post openly questioning how a patent attorney (i.e., Stephan Kinsella) could be of the opinion that it is preferable to have weak patent rights. I openly questioned how and why any individual or corporation would hire a patent attorney who does not believe in the patent system and seems to think that patents are bad, perhaps even evil, and certainly the preferable model would be to have exceptionally limited rights. I appreciate the debate that is ongoing in the comments to that article, but I remain extremely confused regarding the irrational arguments being made. It seems facts are largely being ignored, and when they are being used they are distort reality, history and truth. When I make direct statements about facts and history off handed non-responsive and dismissive statements are made along the lines of “if you hold that belief it is obvious you don’t understand.” Saying that is fine, but that needs to be backed up with facts and argument, which is not happening. We all know why that isn’t happening, namely because there are no facts or legitimate arguments that can be made to counter what I am saying, so rather than addressing them an artificially zen approach to deflecting and recasting, even ridiculing, is preferred. Notwithstanding, below are my thoughts regarding some of what is being said.
Let me set the record straight from the start. I do not agree with President Obama on much, and I voted for and supported John McCain dating all the way back to his first run for President. Having said this, it is impossible to ignore the fact that so far President Obama and his Administration is saying all the right things with respect to innovation and patents, and there is real cause for optimism, at least if you believe that innovation and strong patent rights will lead to a better economy and leverage what Americans do best, which is solve problems with ingenuity and innovation. Not only has President Obama appointed a patent attorney to run the Patent Office, which is sadly revolutionary, but when he speaks of innovation his words sound Reaganesque. This has never been more apparent than in his speech on innovation and sustainable growth delivered at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York, on Monday, September 21, 2009.
Several weeks ago, as summer was winding down and most of us were enjoying some slow times and gearing up for back-to-school, preparing for Labor Day festivities, on vacation or studiously studying fantasy football player projections, Law.com published a very interesting piece titled Slot Opens on Federal Circuit Bench, More Vacancies to Come? The article started out by discussing how Judge Alvin Schall recently informed the White House that he would be exercising his option to take senior status come October 2009. When Judge Schall takes senior status that will raise the number of judges on the Federal Circuit with senior status to five. So come October 2009 there will be five out of sixteen Federal Circuit judges on senior status, with another eight qualifying for senior status, should they choose, within the next two years. Times are definitely changing at the Federal Circuit and whether all those judges who qualify for senior status take senior status or not, even if President Obama winds up spending only one term in Office, which is far from a foregone conclusion, his legacy may well wind up being defined by the impact he will have on innovation policy and patent law.
How to Write a Patent Application is a must own for patent attorneys, patent agents and law students alike. A crucial hands-on resource that walks you through every aspect of preparing and filing a patent application, from working with an inventor to patent searches, preparing the patent application, drafting claims and more. The treatise is continuously updated to address relevant Federal Circuit and Supreme Court decision impacting patent drafting.
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I seem to have started a firestorm by writing a post openly questioning how a patent attorney (i.e., Stephan Kinsella) could be of the opinion that it is preferable to have weak patent rights. I openly questioned how and why any individual or corporation would hire a patent attorney who does not believe in the patent system and seems to think that patents are bad, perhaps even evil, and certainly the preferable model would be to have exceptionally limited rights. I appreciate the debate that is ongoing in the comments to that article, but I remain extremely confused regarding the irrational arguments being made. It seems facts are largely being ignored, and when they are being used they are distort reality, history and truth. When I make direct statements about facts and history off handed non-responsive and dismissive statements are made along the lines of “if you hold that belief it is obvious you don’t understand.” Saying that is fine, but that needs to be backed up with facts and argument, which is not happening. We all know why that isn’t happening, namely because there are no facts or legitimate arguments that can be made to counter what I am saying, so rather than addressing them an artificially zen approach to deflecting and recasting, even ridiculing, is preferred. Notwithstanding, below are my thoughts regarding some of what is being said.
Several weeks ago, as summer was winding down and most of us were enjoying some slow times and gearing up for back-to-school, preparing for Labor Day festivities, on vacation or studiously studying fantasy football player projections, Law.com published a very interesting piece titled 
