Posts Tagged: "Obama"

Just about 10 days ago, on April 27, 2009, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the National Academy of Sciences.  In this speech the President pledged “3 percent of our GDP to research and development.”  With a GDP of $14,075.5 billion, that would equate to research spending of $422 billion.  As  you can imagine, this announcement was received with…

As we continue to wait for President Barack Obama to select the next Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property (a.k.a. the Director of the USPTO), I feel compelled to make yet another nomination.  As some may know, since September 2008, I have periodically nominated various people who I thought would make a good choice for the next PTO Director, including…

As of today, legislative patent reform efforts are working their way through Congress. We are further along the road to legislative reform than at any point in time over the last 4 years, but the ultimate outcome is still not certain. The Senate Judiciary Committee has reported out a version of patent reform, so there is a real expectation that…

Yeseterday I wrote an article titled Obama to Fund Entrepreneurs in Latin America.  In this article I discussed President Obama’s remarks while at the Summitt of the Americas, particularly picking up on his pledge to send $448 million dollars to foreign countries impacted by the economic crisis, and a plan to create a fund to restart the lending to businesses and entrepreneurs…

Sometimes I wonder if I am dreaming.  Virtually all of us have been affected by the economic crisis that has gripped the world, so no one can really claim to be uniquely impacted above and beyond others, although to each their own circumstance no doubt feels unique.  There are tried and true solutions that historically have lead to economic growth…

Yesterday as I was watching news coverage of the thousands of tea parties that occurred all across America one particular sign caught my attention.  It was a poster of Ronald Reagan in a style reminiscent of the now famous Barack Obama poster created by Shepard Fairey.  You may recall that Fairey created a popular print made famous through the 2008…

For some time now I have been writing about how a patent stimulus plan would revitalize the economy, but I am all fired up today after a flurry of comments and e-mail exchanges regarding some of my recent blog articles. It is way past time to rethink the patent application process and how patent prosecution is carried out by patent examiners. …

The trouble with freeware is that there is no margin on free, and while open source solutions are not free, the race to asymptotically approach free is on, hence why I say the race to zero is in full swing. As companies continue to look for the low cost solution, quality is sacrificed.

On July 28, 1987, President Ronald Reagan set forth what became known as the “11-point superconductivity initiative” in a speech to the Federal Conference on Commercial Applications of Superconductivity.  As a part of President Reagan’s superconductivity initiative he proposed amendments to the antitrust laws to make it easier for companies to collaborate with respect to basic research, he requested changes to the Freedom…

On Monday I wrote about how Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) was opposed to the pending patent reform legislation and how there was going to be an Executive Meeting of the Judiciary Committee this morning at 10:00 am to discuss some pending nominations before the committee and the patent reform legislation supported by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Orin Hatch…

On March 2, 2009, the Practising Law Institute kicked off the Third Annual Patent Law Institute at its New York City headquarters.  The West Coast version of this live program started today and will conclude tomorrow, live at the California offices of PLI in downtown San Francisco, CA.  Right about now the participants are probably seeing a video of Robert Clarke,…

There is a lot of money sitting on the sidelines just waiting for the climate to change enough to warrant investment.  By some estimates the amount of capital lying in wait is perhaps as much as $10 trillion.  With no end in sight on just how low the Dow will fall, fears that banks will become nationalized have spooked investors. …

As scary as it is, it is becoming harder and harder to believe anything other than that we are in another period of depression, call it the Great Depression II.  The Dow Jones industrial average closed today at 6,763.29, which marks the lowest close of the Dow since April 25, 1997.  It also means that we are now 52.4% off…

Earlier today more than 130 US manufacturing companies sent a joint letter to President Obama detailing their serious concerns about the economic impact that enactment of patent reform legislation would have on the US economy should such reform look anything like what was proposed during the 110th Congress last year. The letter sent to President Obama coordinated by the Manufacturing Alliance on Patent…

In a strange twist, Shepard Fairey, the artist of the popular print made famous through the 2008 Presidential Campaign, has sued the Associated Press in federal District Court in Manhattan seeking an order from the court that his use of the underlying photograph owned by the Associated Press is a fair use.  Mr. Fairey’s lawyer, Anthony T. Falzone, the executive…