Posts Tagged: "Regulatory Reform Officer"

Confused by USPTO stonewalling, I sent a FOIA request to the Office. Is it possible that the USPTO is not going to name a Regulatory Reform Officer? Is it possible that the USPTO is not going to have a Regulatory Reform Task Force at all? Is it possible that the USPTO will merely participate with the Department of Commerce’s efforts and not engage in their own independent review of regulations? Nature abhors a vacuum, and so too does Washington, DC. I guess this just means we are in a cycle where getting any real information out of the USPTO will require a FOIA request.

According to the announcement, the members of the USPTO Working Group will also make up the USPTO regulatory Reform Task Force… The names of the members of the Working Group/Task Force were not provided in the USPTO announcement, although the announcement does say: “Nicolas Oettinger, Senior Counsel for Regulatory and Legislative Affairs in the USPTO’s Office of General Counsel, will lead this effort.” That presumably means that Oettinger has been designated the Regulatory Reform Officer by Director Lee, although that remains unconfirmed.

In this Executive Order, President Trump orders the heads of each agency to designate a Regulatory Reform Officer (RRO) within 60 days. In addition to the designation of a Regulatory Reform Officer, the Patent Office (along with many other agencies) will be required to create a Regulatory Reform Task Force, which will be made up of the RRO, the agency Regulatory Policy Officer, a representative from the USPTO’s central policy office, and at least three other senior level USPTO officials as determined by the Director of the USPTO. When considering the recommendations of the Regulatory Reform Task Force, the agency head has been told to prioritize those regulations identified as being outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective.