On the Patent Reform Act of 2009
By Alex Poltorak, March 8, 2009Last Tuesday, March 3, 2009, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Representatives John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) have...
View ArticleTodd Dickinson Should Be (re)Appointed Director of the USPTO
As you probably recall, Q. Todd Dickinson started as deputy in early 1998 and then served as director of the USPTO until January 2001, during a critical juncture in its history. He dealt with Congress...
View ArticleAutomated Patent Examination Support – A Proposal
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) complains that it is overwhelmed by the onslaught of patent applications, and seeks to shift to the applicants the burden of finding prior art and...
View ArticlePolitics – and Patent Legislation – Make Strange Bedfellows
An interesting and disparate coalition of groups has come out in opposition to the proposed Patent Reform Act of 2009, groups that traditionally have nothing to do with each other. Pharmaceutical...
View ArticleAmerican Innovators for Patent Reform Mentioned in Wall Street Journal
On October 16, 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that twelve Republican senators – apparently feeling left out of the patent reform process – wrote a letter to Senate leaders asking them to...
View ArticleBig Tech Condemns Patent Reform Bill; Pharma, Biotech and Small Tech Disagree
March 15, 2010 - Earlier this month, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) announced in a press release that the Senate Judiciary Committee has reached a bipartisan agreement and produced an amendment with...
View ArticleFee Diversion Continues at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: $70 Million in...
Proposed 2011 USPTO Budget Does Not Appear to Include Fee Diversion, but Actually Does!October 20, 2010 – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) collected approximately $70 million in fees over...
View ArticleSome Sanity from Congress
May 30, 2014 – It looks like to anti-patent, anti-innovation bills – both of which were cleverly labeled as “patent reform” – are dead. Or at least will not be acted on in this Congress. Last year, the...
View ArticleMore Madness from Congress!
June 5, 2014 – Just when we thought sanity had begun to prevail, Rep. Blake Farenthold – a Republican from Texas no less – proposes the “Trade Protection Not Troll Protection” bill! The bill would...
View ArticleBittersweet Milestone: Ten Million Patents Issued in the US, but What Are...
Last month, the U.S. Patent Office issued patent number 10,000,000. This historic occasion calls for rethinking our patent system and the future of American innovation. In the past, such an event would...
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