Posts Tagged: "unh school of law"

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced that the University of New Hampshire School of Law Library, which was designated as the Concord Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC.) on January 30, 2012, is now open to serve the intellectual property (IP) needs of the public.

Many readers of IPWatchdog.com know that I hold two degrees from the former FPLC, both my Juris Doctor and my Master of Laws in intellectual property, and continue to have a special place in my heart for the institution and the people affiliated with the institution. It is good to see that the UNH School of Law continues the tradition of Franklin Pierce Law Center. UNH-FPLC has been ranked each and every year since U.S. News began their specialty law school rankings began in 1992.

Dudas started off discussing USPTO funding by explaining that while he was at the agency, while he was preparing to testify before Congress at one particular moment, he discussed with his senior staff the problem. “Why can’t I just tell them that the PTO funding is like a ponzi-scheme,” Dudas recounted. He would go on to say that everyone to a person told him “you can’t say that!” So Dudas settled on saying it this way: “the funding of the USPTO is similar to the way Congress funds Social Security.” That seemed to please his advisors and apparently didn’t ruffle any feathers on Capitol Hill. Of course, those on the Hill probably had no idea what Dudas was saying, after all many leaders (including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) are in denial with respect to Social Security and actually claim that there isn’t a crisis and those claiming Social Security is going broke are perpetuating a myth because they don’t like government.

During his contemporaneous, unscripted speech, Chief Judge Randall Rader made several remarks about the access to justice that raised some eyebrows. On Friday we were told that we need to tolerate the injustice of certain rules that might lead to an unfair result, but then on Saturday morning during the Judges’ panel we were told that rules of thumb couldn’t and shouldn’t apply to the law of damages. Rader on one hand was saying that certainty and relatively bright line rules are necessary to control the process of litigation, but then on the other hand saying that a flexible, case-by-case approach needs to be what we pursue. In short, it seems to me that Judge Rader wants to have his cake and eat it too! I dissented in person, and I dissent here and now.

There is much to write about the event, but I will start my week long coverage with an overview of the event. As the week progresses I will delve into some interesting substantive discussions that took place over this Intellectual Property weekend in the Granite State, including: (1) Chief Judge Rader tell me during the Judges’ panel: “You aren’t making any sense…”; (2) Chief Judge Rader daring anyone to come up with proof that the Supreme Court’s decision in KSR did anything to change previous Federal Circuit case law on obviousness (I’ll take that challenge!); and (3) Jon Dudas, the former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, succinctly (and correctly) explaining that the funding of the United States Patent and Trademark Office is similar in ways to a Ponzi scheme.

Indeed, the new Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at the University of New Hampshire School of Law will formally open with a bang! Chief Judge Randall Rader of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will deliver remarks at a dinner hosted by UNH Law on Friday, September 30, 2011, and will participate in a Judge’s panel on Saturday, October 1, 2011. Rounding out the Judges’ panel will be Judge Pauline Newman and Judge Arthur Gajarsa, both also of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Three Federal Circuit Judges at the opening event for the new IP Center is a great way to start.

Our biggest problems (apart from judicial salaries and the consequent effect on morale and tenure of judges) are judicial vacancies and the politicization of the confirmation process. There has not been an omnibus judge bill for years; the Administrative Office has requested Congress to establish 88 new judgeships based on workload statistics. A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Emergency Relief Act of 2011 (S.1014) to address some of the greatest judgeship needs. It provides for 10 additional judgeships in California, Texas, and Arizona, and would make permanent two additional temporary judgeships but, as of May 23, 2011, there were 86 vacancies; of 53 pending nominations, 40 are pending in Committee; only 13 are pending on the Senate floor. While there has been some welcome movement on confirmation votes recently, especially for the district courts, there are still 33 judicial emergencies. I am grateful to Denise Cardman of the ABA Washington office for following this situation so competently and providing me with these statistics.

The coming together of Ted Olson and David Boies for the purpose of advocating for a judicial system was not by happenstance. As you will read in the interview that follows, the men are aware they are high profile attorneys and hope that their fame will enable them to capture the attention of legislatures, lawyers and the public. They are each committed to advocating for a judicial system starved for resources and without lobbyists of its own, but which is supposed to be a co-equal branch of government along with the Legislative and Executive Branches of government.

The Task Force is on the Preservation of the Justice System, and is chaired by perhaps the two most well-known lawyers in the United States, David Boies and Ted Olson. Olson and Boies are lending their considerable clout to shining light on a true crisis — an inadequately funded Judiciary. We have long known that a stable business climate is important for thriving, growing businesses. That is why organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce provide rankings of State Judicial Systems in terms of friendliness toward business. Said as straight as I can, if you don’t think a functioning Judicial System is a huge business issue then you just aren’t paying attention or haven’t seriously thought about the issues.

If you look at the list, when they first started doing these ranking we were number one, then we were number four, and then we dropped. Now we’re number nine, and they only rank through number ten. So we’re tied for ninth with Duke, which is amazing given our size and our location. Now, the schools ahead of us are Michigan, Harvard and Stanford. In many ways we would never be on that list. To remain on the list, we needed to be in a bigger boat. We needed more resources. Otherwise, we might be pushed off the list, and we don’t want to fall off that list. So I think in some ways we were entrepreneurial as the school has always been, in ensuring our long term vitality. I think our capacity to be a larger player potentially with more resources, with more interdisciplinary activity in our IP center, has been enhanced.

On January 28, 2011, the recently retired Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, John Broderick, became the Dean and President of the University of New Hampshire School of Law. The new UNH School of Law is the law school formerly known as Franklin Pierce Law Center, renowned around the world for its intellectual property program. On January 31, 2011, I had the opportunity to chat with Chief Justice Broderick, who prefers to go by his first name these days.