Posts Tagged: "patent policy"

Senator Coons, Acting Director Matal give Keynote at IAM Patent Policy Conference

The second (lunch) keynote was from a patent fan: Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). By now, I have heard him speak on several occasions and it is always welcome to be reminded that the patent system has an advocate on the Hill. If only more could be recruited to his point of view. He spoke of the constitutional pedigree of our patent system, how well it has worked to achieve it goals over the years, and how the system has been steadily undermined in recent years. He gave a cogent summary of the Supreme Court harpooning of the patent system: eBay: no injunctive relief; Bilski: software tossed aside; Mayo: diagnostics sidelined; Myriad: discoveries eliminated; Alice: finishing off what Bilski started. Combine this with the AIA, and you have a rout. The only solution going forward is for Congress to address these issues. Waiting for the Courts is too too slow, and potentially fatal to the system as users sign-off, and the initiative in technology lost to others who have maintained and improved protection for the same subject matter.

What I Want and Why: An Open Letter to the Next PTO Director

Inasmuch as the new Director can change, or do whatever they want once in the job, and will be subject to political winds, I thought I’d just tell them what I want and why. Simple. Here’s my list. First, believe in your product and the team that produces the product. Stop the labeling of “legitimate patents” as compared to other, presumably, “illegitimate patents”. There is only one type of patent, the one produced by the PTO. End of story. Each receives the examination it can in light of the fees paid. Each examination is done according to the laws and rules set forth in the statute and in accord with the CAFC administration of that statute vis-à-vis the PTO. This is true across all technologies. Examiner’s do the best they can with the tools available. This includes training, searching, and examining. The PTO does not favor one group over another. It calls balls and strikes in light of the relevant statute or rule.

Is Trump being bamboozled by Obama holdovers on patent policy?

The USPTO’s Obama holdovers Michelle Lee and Tony Scardino are simply co-opting the exact language used in Obama’s budgets for fiscal years 2015 to 2017 into Trump’s 2018 budget and then directly attributing Obama’s policies and statements to President Trump even though Trump has never taken a position on anti-patent legislation… Are these failed Obama era policies now carried over into the Trump Administration by Obama holdovers simply mistakes? Some sort of scrivener’s error? Or is it a direct attempt to carry over failed Obama policies in the name of President Trump? You be the judge. Perhaps you can tell me: Is Trump being googled by Obama holdovers? Or is Trump himself the swamp?

Past as Prologue: Is there Hope for America’s Patent System?

We need to remember that we’ve seen America’s patent system in near complete collapse before. In the 1960s and 1970s the Supreme Court never saw a patent that was valid, which lead to the creation of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the 1970s and early 1980s there was great concern that Japan would win the technology future and America would become an also-ran in the burgeoning technological revolution, but that never happened… In the 1980s, a strong patent system was the primary driver for the economic achievements that unleashed American enterprise and allowed the United States to compete on the world stage. It worked in the 1980s to address what was a similarly difficult time, and it will work today.

Patent Forecast 2017: Will Patent Courts Be Great Again?

While Congress seems to pass some form of patent legislation roughly every 9 to 11 years, the more important changes with regard to business predictability and economic growth tend to come from specific Court decisions. Just look at what Alice has done to ruin software patents with uncertainty, and now with the PTAB actually finding that an MRI machine is an unpatentable abstract idea. Worse it has placed the US behind Europe and even China in terms of protecting computer implemented inventions… Courts can make patents great again in America. And if not they will at least be as active as they have been in the past 10 years in terms of shaping the patent dialogue.

While Congress does seem to pass some form of patent legislation roughly every 9 to 11 years, the more important changes with regard to business predictability and economic growth tend to come from specific Court decisions. Just look at what Alice has done to ruin software patents with uncertainty, and now with the PTAB actually finding that an MRI machine is an unpatentable abstract idea. Worse it has placed the US behind Europe and even China in terms of protecting computer implemented inventions.