THE EPO is already being destroyed by a patent maximalist called Battistelli. The USPTO dodged the bullet when years ago it decided to improve rather than worsen patent quality. Pressure groups like AIPLA aren't happy about it [1, 2, 3]; they're adamantly against Section 101, AIA (IPRs/PTAB) and many other things. The same goes for opportunists like Anticipat, who as recently as yesterday promoted a so-called 'webinar' -- a euphemism for lobbying -- with AIPLA in it (Patent Docs promotes similar events).
"Remember that IAM is giving honours to scammers who combat PTAB."More disturbing, however, was seeing Iancu liaising with the pro-software patents and pro-trolls Richard Lloyd. He's the worst of the IAM bunch. It is a very bad sign that a new USPTO Director already speaks with and participates in events of the patent trolls' lobby (IAM), which habitually copy-pastes communications from lobbyist David Kappos, a former USPTO Director. IAM brags about going to visit him in the US and the headline is the typical PTAB-bashing nonsense from IAM. To quote:
New USPTO Director Andrei Iancu has called for greater predictability in the US patent system and has admitted that there is a perception problem with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) among the IP community.
In his first interview with a specialist IP title since he took office in February, Iancu covered a wide range of topics including the need for greater guidance over patent eligible subject matter and concerns around the PTAB, but he consistently returned to the subject of predictability in a sign of what could become the defining feature of his time leading the agency.
That should provide some comfort for patent owners who have complained of the uncertainty in the system fuelled by the rise of inter partes reviews (IPRs) and a lack of clarity over Section 101 of the US patent statute.
Speaking to IAM on a crisp Friday afternoon from his top floor office at USPTO HQ in Northern Virginia, Iancu asserted that: “It is critically important to have predictable patent rights. If you have predictable patent rights then you have quality patent rights.”
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and Allergan filed a joint motion late last week before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), arguing that its Notice of Appeal divested the Board of jurisdiction over the inter partes review proceedings related to the Tribe's patents obtained by assignment by Allergan, and thus that the Board can no longer proceed to Final Written Decision in any of these IPRs. In the alternative, the Tribe argues that the Board should suspend the IPRs under 37 C.F.R. ۤ 42.5(a) pending Federal Circuit review, because "the issues raised in [these proceedings] are important matters of first impression not contemplated by the statutory scheme."