Posts Tagged: "US Economy"

Director Iancu is knowingly and intentionally seeking to provide hope in the words he speaks because he believes a strong patent system is necessary for the U.S. economy to flourish. In part one of our interview we also discussed the need for transparency, and the troubling Freedom of Information Act processes employed by the Office that seem hopelessly broken. We discussed the posts grant challenge process, the PTAB, experience level of the Administrative Patent Judges on the PTAB and inter partes review.

Is the Supreme Court anti-patent? it has been suggested to me that such rhetoric, whether true or not, is unhelpful and puts those urging pro-patent views on the defensive. If that is correct then it should be banned from our lexicon. But I still wonder how one can or should refer to Justices who repeatedly vote against the patent owner? Certainly, the Supreme Court is not pro-patent, and they are certainly showing no signs of being self-aware when it comes to the path of destruction they have cut through critical sectors of the American high-tech economy. But I guess that doesn’t make them anti-patent, or at least you can’t call them anti-patent because that is rude, or off putting, or offensive to those who hold the Court in high esteem. 

Several months ago, the Trump Administration launched an investigation into Chinese trade policies that are responsible for expropriating American intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights).  This investigation is premised upon Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 which gives the President the authority to take all appropriate action, including retaliatory action, against China if the U.S. concludes that China’s policies on…

Asserting patent rights is a surreal endeavor these days. While the statistics on survival at the PTAB are improving, with the percentage of initiated proceedings declining and some patents seeing their claims affirmed, the cost and time necessary for a patentee to claw their way back to the district court—i.e., back to Square One—proves too much for many patentees. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) to fight at the PTAB simply to confirm issued patent claims is pushing many patentees out of the enforcement market. With such oppressive legal hurdles and costs, what good is a patent? For many, it cannot be enforced?

There can be no dispute that the level of business startup activity has been on the decline in the United States over the past few decades. So alarming is the downward trend that publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and others have tackled the issue in depth. Inc. Magazine has even asked whether entrepreneurship in America is dead? Still, a disturbing counter-factual narrative seems to be taking hold inside the Beltway, and on Capitol Hill. Despite all research and data to the contrary, some are actually saying that startups are on the rise, and then using carefully selected and tortured data points to claim that patent reforms are the reason for the rise in startups, and more patent reforms are needed.

For the first time since the inception of the Bloomberg Innovation Index, the U.S. ranked outside the top 10, ranking 11th out of the 50 economies. This latest dip in standing for the U.S. innovation economy is simply the most recent sign that significant issues exist relative to innovation and intellectual property… Another trend pointed out by the recent Bloomberg Innovation Index is the slow rise of the innovation economy in China which has shown signs of improving just as the United States continues to be unable to address key IP issues. China climbed two rank positions in the most recent version of the Bloomberg index, up to 19th from 21st the previous year.

IP-protected innovation is now the principal driver of corporate value and is driving economic growth nationally. Developing an IP portfolio is now a basic requirement even for tech startups that hope to raise early stage financing… A large portion of the market cap of Silicon Valley companies can be directly attributed to intangible – or in other words intellectual property – assets. IP law is the primary tool used to protect the value of that innovation, and as we see from countries without meaningful IP laws there is simply no way to protect innovation absent a strong intellectual property system.

As of the date of this publication, the US House of Representatives and the Senate have passed the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” as reconciled by the conference committee. Now that the President has signed the Republican tax bill into law, IP owners may find the tax bill will impact sales of certain intellectual property… Given that the Committee Bill directly contradicts itself with respect to the tax treatment of the sale of patents by taxpayers whose personal efforts created such property, it is unclear how this Bill will be implemented. It is unclear how gains or losses on a sale of self-created assets by a taxpayer who created a patent will be treated.

The Fed has been oblivious to the mechanisms of market economics and technology investment driven by the degradation of patent rights in recent years. While the Fed focuses exclusively on inflation and the labor market, they have ignored factors driving technology investment and the disintegration of the patent system that has underscored the declining business investment trend. With a degraded patent system, investors have shifted to other asset classes or markets rather than investing in technology.

As President Trump embarks on the renegotiation of NAFTA, it is critical that we seize the opportunity to make it the gold standard in intellectual property rights protections… The stakes are tremendous and cannot be ignored.  In total, it is estimated that intellectual-property theft costs the United States approximately $600 billion per year.  A recent New York Times article notes that this is the “greatest transfer of wealth in history”.

USC’s new course is premised on the notion that IP questions lie at the heart of a great many areas of modern life today — From Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 500 board rooms, from MIT engineering labs to Wall Street trading desks, and from industry trade conferences to the trade policy debates raging in Congress. Indeed, it is difficult to pick up a newspaper, or read any online magazine, without reading news about how intellectual property is impacting daily life and business… The brainchild of USC President C. L. Max Nikias and billionaire medical inventor Dr. Gary Michelson, USC new undergrad course in intellectual property — named The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Intellectual Property — just launched this fall. Taught by Kirkland & Ellis partner Luke Dauchot, with a phalanx of IP luminaries as guest speakers —including Marshall Phelps, former USPTO director David Kappos, Facebook IP chief Allen Lo, Dolby General Counsel Andy Sherman, and Xiaomi chief of IP strategy Paul Lin, among others.

The five year experiment of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is a colossal mistake. It is a failure to inventors, startups, early stage investors, job creation, economic growth, our national standing, and most importantly, our national security. The extraordinary damage of the PTAB on so many levels cannot be overstated. I’ve always believed that it’s okay to make a mistake. A mistake can be corrected. But the real sin is ignoring that mistake and watching it become a disaster. Congress made a huge mistake in creating the PTAB. If Congress ignores it, it will absolutely become a national disaster. And, we are on the brink of that national disaster right now.

Today, most Americans don’t realize how vital the patent system is to their standard of living. But the founding fathers certainly did. That’s why they very consciously set out to construct the world’s first DEMOCRATIZED patent system that would do what no other patent system in the world had done before; stimulate the inventive genius of the common man… I would call for patience, because I believe history has shown that the system self-corrects and will likely do so again. But in our zeal for the perfect system, remember, the perfect is the enemy of the good. So be careful what you wish for.

The U.S. patent system is the primary contributor for the U.S. economy. Since the foundering of the nation, the patent system has fostered an innovation culture that is directly responsible for making inventions that are more than all inventions accumulated in all major civilized regions in several thousands of years. However, the U.S. has inherent disadvantages in the political system and court systems… After the irreparable damages of public trust in the patent system, overhauling the patent system is no longer a feasible option. To continue existing as a powerful nation in the world, the U.S. must put its population back to the inventing business and create a renewed innovation culture, which could reach the entire population. It cannot count on the “miserable system” known in Thomas Edison’s time. Due to intensified competition and critical roles of technologies in competition, America must do far more than what is necessary to turn the dead patent system back to the same “miserable system”. One more thing that the Congress should do is to revive all invalidated patents under the AIA.