Robert L. Stoll speaks at an event of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, not to be mistaken for a greedy, Koch Industries-tied, right-wing anti-science think tank called the Heritage Foundation (photo source)

THE MEDIA'S reporting on issues such as patents is poor if not outright appalling. The media likes speaking to patent lawyers rather than people who are actually impacted by patents. The media also speaks to officials of the patent system, such as David Kappos, an IBM employee who ran the USPTO and now makes money from patent maximalism inside a patents-centric firm (from public office to private vultures, or revolving doors). He promotes software patents these days.

"The media likes speaking to patent lawyers rather than people who are actually impacted by patents."Speaking of IBM, as we noted here the other day, Forbes keeps hyping up the accumulation of patents ("Why Does IBM’s Intellectual Property Revenue Continue To Decline") for reasons that are to do with ownership (of media). As long as large corporations dominate the media, the bias will be embedded and many people will just take it for granted, unless they read alternative media or blogs such as this.

The propaganda persists today, courtesy of what The Hill misleadingly labels "contributor" (sounds innocent enough); supported by patent lawyers who love software patents, Robert L. Stoll has just published in lobbyists' media an attack on the Alice-related tests. "New patent subject-matter eligibility test hurts US competitiveness" says the headline. What utter nonsense. One again the USPTO or some patent lawyer pretends that software patents are good for the US economy (maybe good for his own parasitic occupation, contrary to the real economy). "For this reason," he concludes, our courts must reexamine the "two-prong test" on patent subject-matter eligibility. America's innovation economy and the jobs it creates cannot long survive the abandonment of the broad subject-matter eligibility that has made us world leaders in innovation for the past century."

"The policies they advocate also help patent trolls and software patents proponents such as IBM (which Kappos came from)."What jobs has Stoll held which actually produced something? Has Stoll even written a single line of code in his lifetime? Who is Stoll anyway? By his own description, "Stoll is a partner and co-chair of the intellectual property group at Drinker Biddle & Reath and a former commissioner for patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office." According to his work profile: "He earned his law degree from Catholic University while working at the USPTO. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland." Nothing at all to do with software then.

It's sad that those reading the corporate/mainstream media are exposed to views from the likes of Stoll and Kappos. They don't care about "America's innovation economy and the jobs" as they claim. They just care about their own job, which involves taxing (patent tax) those who actually create stuff. The policies they advocate also help patent trolls and software patents proponents such as IBM (which Kappos came from). ⬆

"If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect."

--Benjamin Franklin