Posts Tagged: "Patent Quality Summit"

The last time patent quality was being discussed the leadership of the Office had not come from the private sector, but rather came from within government ranks. Running the USPTO today are two people with substantial private sector experience and knowledge about how patents are used. This bodes well for the future, and is no doubt why so much of the focus on patent quality today was on issuing patents that deserve to be issued.

Director Lee announced that earlier this morning she swore in Russ Slifer to serve as the new Deputy Director of the USPTO. Slifer had been the Director of the USPTO Rocky Mountain Regional Office. He practiced intellectual property law for 20 years, serving for the last 8 years of his private sector practice as the Chief Patent Counsel for Micron Technology in Boise, Idaho.

According to Martin-Wallace, the goal of the Patent Quality Summit is to establish a dialogue between the USPTO and stakeholders so that both sides can obtain a better understanding of where everyone is coming from when we talk about patent quality, and to set expectations going both directions. “Quality is two-fold – both internal and external,” Martin-Wallace explained. “We want to make sure we are delivering quality to stakeholders… patents that can stand up in the courts.”