Posts Tagged: "Wilbur Ross"

How much longer can there be no official announcement regarding the status of Michelle Lee? The continued silence raises very serious questions, particularly given that there have been public announcements made regarding others who have been specifically held over to serve in the Trump Administration. Undoubtedly, at some point continued silence about Lee’s status will mature into questions about her authority and whether any actions she takes are legal or perhaps simply void ab initio… If no answer is forthcoming in very short order someone will need to speak up, at least internally, because from the outside the facts give reason to suspect the possibility that a former USPTO Director may be refusing to relinquish power and the rest of the agency is just going along with it.

I learned from a credible source that Lee was either refusing to resign or perhaps attempting to revoke her letter of resignation. Shortly thereafter I was told that senior Obama officials were upset with what was happening at the Patent Office and that Lee had “gone rogue.” I reached out to the Patent Office for comment, suggesting I was happy to accept even a denial of this rather bizarre and difficult to believe story. The Patent Office has not made anyone available to confirm, deny, rebut or refute this version of events.

This week’s news headlines include nomination hearings for the potential incoming U.S. Commerce Secretary, the Supreme Court’s granting certiorari for an important case in biologics, a patent infringement suit targeting the NFL, the expiration of copyright protecting the works of a very influential science fiction author from the early 20th century, and another sports figure — this time UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor — filing trademark applications.

We know that not only are copyrights grounded in the constitution, but core copyright industries contribute approximately $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, and employ over 5.5 million American workers. At the same time, however, we are acutely aware that, unfortunately, copyright theft online is rampant, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has increasingly become ill equipped to address even flagrant, willful copyright infringement in the digital world. What we don’t know, however, is how President-Elect Trump and the Trump Administration will view copyright issues, and whether pro-creator copyright reforms will be on the President’s agenda come January 20, 2017. We can, however, make some educated guesses based on Trump’s entertainment industry ties, his potential Supreme Court nominees, and those he is surrounding himself with on his Transition Team and in a Trump Administration that is increasingly taking shape.

Wilbur Ross, Trump’s nominee to run Commerce, has a zero tolerance for IP theft, which indicates a possible change in direction for US patent policy… Ross has a long view on the American economy and has had some exposure to patents. Many of the manufacturing, textile and telecommunications companies he has refinanced owned patents. Ross as the “bankruptcy king” or “vulture capitalist” dealt with patents as one of the many assets to use to help turn around a distressed company. Using patents as collateral for a loan should not be controversial or exotic.