Posts Tagged: "todd dickinson"

In recent weeks news has come out that Phil Johnson’s nomination as Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office is dead. It seems to be dead due to the protest of at least one Senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee, not because the onerous vetting process produced any red flags or because the White House has lost interest. The Senator allegedly unhappy is Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)… [N]ominees [are put] through an extraordinary vetting process that reportedly can take between 5 to 9 months to complete even in the best case scenario. Let’s say that the White House has decided to move past Johnson and will not look back. They must first identify a willing candidate; someone who can pass through the gauntlet that is the vetting process, has the requisite experience and who is willing to take a substantial pay cut. Such an individually would likely having to unwind investments and holdings, or at least put them into some blind trust. Even if the White House can this week identify that person who accepts the invitation to take the position and who is willing to subject themselves to scrutiny that would make an IRS inquiry look like a day in the park, that means we are looking at at least January 2015 before confirmation.

Earlier this morning Wayne Sobon, President of the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association, sent an e-mail to members announcing that Todd Dickinson will step down as Executive Director of the AIPLA. The announcement suggest this will be effective immediately, and provides no reason for Dickinson’s departure.

Congress is moving forward with at least some patent reform efforts this year, taking up the Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters Act of 2014, which is scheduled to be marked up in the House Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee on July 10, 2014… This draft legislation — creatively dubbed the TROL Act — addresses the sending of abusive and bad faith patent demand letters by clarifying that such activity may violate the Federal Trade Commission Act and authorizing that agency and state attorneys general to bring actions to stop the abusive behavior, among other things.

The Keynote Address will be given at 9:00 am by Michelle Lee, the new Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Deputy Director Lee joined the USPTO on January 13, 2014, but has yet to have much of a public schedule. Instead, Deputy Director Lee has largely been engaging in a series of one-on-one private meetings with various stakeholders. This will be one of her first public appearances, which in and of itself makes this even noteworthy.

Manny Schecter (IBM Chief Patent Counsel) writes: “Last year I wished for greater understanding of the patent system outside of the patent community. Awareness of the patent system has certainly grown, but understanding? I’m not so sure. I still see a rush by many to hasty “solutions” that would actually result in more harm than good. My latest concern is proposals for technology-specific reforms. These proposals comprise calls for restricting the scope of, enhancing challenges for, or eliminating altogether, patents relating to certain technologies such as computer and genetic implemented inventions.”

In this edition of Biggest Moments in IP we have a variety of reflections on a wide array of IP issues. Todd Dickinson goes international by pointing to the EU Unitary Patent as a very important long-term milestone, and congratulates the USPTO on being ranked the top place to work in the federal government. Scott McKeown focuses on a decision from the Federal Circuit that will allow collateral challenges to damage awards. Bob Stoll points to the Innovation act, Federal Circuit disarray over software, the “revolutionary” Supreme Court decision in Myriad and the Microsoft/Motorola FRAND decision.

A recurring theme that can be traced through the patent reforms of the AIA to the current debate over patent litigation abuse is the issue of patent quality. A key component of the reported abuses is the assertion of allegedly invalid or overbroad patents, the very abuse for which AIA post-grant procedures were created, in order to improve patent quality. These matters of patent quality are being addressed by the changes made to the law by the Judiciary and by Congress in the AIA, which are only now beginning to be felt. It may well be premature to conclude that they are not doing the job. Take one major example, as a former Director of the USPTO in particular, I would support, as former Director Kappos did, giving the post-grant processes in the USPTO a chance to work.

With sequestration finally cutting the Republicans don’t seem to be in any rush whatsoever, so the Patent Office which really should be exempt is caught in the cross hairs. Although it is easy to point at Congressman Wolf, a Republican, and say the Republicans are to blame, that would be a mistake. Senator Coburn (R-OK) is a Republican and he fought to fully and fairly fund the USPTO. Furthermore, the reason the USPTO is bound by sequestration is thanks to the interpretation of the Office of Management and Budget. OMB is a part of the Executive Branch, so the President is in no way blameless. He has no trouble ignoring Congress when it suites him (i.e., the health care employer mandate delay) but when an argument could logically be made that the USPTO is not covered by sequestration no such argument was made. Thus, this is less a political issue than it is really bad kabuki theater.

In Part I of the interview we discussed Judge Linn’s early interest in patent law and how he found himself appointed to replace the recently deceased Judge Giles Sutherland Rich. We then discussed engaging as a lawyer with civility while still zealously representing clients. That brought us to a topic near and dear to the Judge’s heart — the Inns of Court and the many patent focused Inns across the country that together make up the Richard Linn Inn Alliance. In Part II of the interview we pick up with the discussion of the Inns of Court and further discuss civility and “Rambo style of lawyering,” which Judge Linn explains was really the genesis behind the forming of the Inns of Court.

This year the IPO recognized Alex Kipman of Microsoft, the inventor of Kinect, as the 39th Inventor of the Year. Kipman was introduced and presented the award by David Kappos, the outgoing Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The fact that Kappos was the presenter allowed the IPO to sneak in a moment of appreciation for all that Kappos has done for the patent and innovation communities. For his efforts, and to say thank you, those in attendance gave Director Kappos a standing ovation.

In addition to the USPTO remaining in the capable hands of Director Kappos for the foreseeable future, with the reelection of President Obama that means that there could be a real possibility that AIPLA Executive Director, Q. Todd Dickinson, will be on any short list for future appointments to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While no one knows for sure, given the age of Judges on the Federal Circuit it would seem likely that President Obama will have an opportunity to appoint at several Judges to the Court, and given the Court’s workload they could and should be granted more Judgeships anyway.