Bonum Certa Men Certa

CIPU is Amplifying Misleading Propaganda From the Chamber of Commerce

Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) logo



Summary: Another lobbying event is set up to alarm lawmakers and officials, telling them that the US dropped from first to twelfth using some dodgy yardstick which favours patent extremists

THE USPTO is improving patent quality as per rulings from higher up (the courts) and instructions from the management. This should really be celebrated, but this may mean many layoffs among patent lawyers, who became accustomed to an abundance of patents and lawsuits. As we shall show in later posts, Watchtroll still rants quite a lot and yesterday it resorted to citing the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU), a lobby group of patent maximalists. This, in turn, props up those infamous lies (rebutted here before) from the Chamber of Commerce.



"The US did not drop at all; they measure the wrong thing to intentionally influence the outcome in favour of the patent microcosm, conflating innovation with the number of patents..."It's just another one of those lobbying events. To quote: "The event was the first Washington gathering in recent history to re-introduce the idea of what innovation policy is, and how it impacts intellectual property (IP) rights. A group of almost 100 key innovation and IP influencers from government, business, and academia met to strategize on reversing the decline in innovative output that has recently seen the US drop to 12th place in patent rankings from the sixth edition of the International IP Index published by the Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

The US did not drop at all; they measure the wrong thing to intentionally influence the outcome in favour of the patent microcosm, conflating innovation with the number of patents and similar things (the headline speaks of "US innovation policy" but actually measures it in terms of patents or "IP"). They trash-talk their own country with the sole intention of changing the law to harm that country.

This is tiring old nonsense. Quite a few scholars already debunked it, but one scholar, Dennis Crouch, is still happy to promote it at the behest of patent maximalists and days ago he was still reprinting USPTO press releases to fill up space. He posted this 'shopping list' of patent lawyers:

Individuals Listed by Firm:

Alston & Bird LLP — Chris Lightner — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Charley F. Brown — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Jason T. Fletcher — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Michele A. Kliem — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Galit Levitin — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Scott D. Marty — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Sandra Sciascia-Zirger — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — D. Brian Shortell — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Sommer S. Zimmerman — Altanta , GA Ballard Spahr LLP — Wendy Ann Choi — Atlanta, GA Ballard Spahr LLP — John Chionchio — Philadelphia, PA Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP — David Atkinson — Denver, CO Carter, DeLuca, Farrell & Schmidt, LLP — Jason B. Scher — Melville, NY Cozen O’Connor — Kyle Vos Strache — Philadelphia, PA CreatiVenture Law, LLC — Dennis JM Donahue III — St. Louis, MO Davis Wright Tremaine LLP — Jonathan Tolstedt — Seattle, WA Dentons US LLP — Roman Tsibulevskiy — Washington, DC DLA Piper LLP — Tim Lohse — East Palo Alto, CA DLA Piper LLP — Jeff Clark, MD — Boston, MA Duane Morris — Joaquin Hernandez — Boca Raton, FL Edam Law PLLC — Edmar M. Amaya, LL.M. — Miami, FL Eversheds Sutherland LLP — Josh Aronson — Atlanta, GA Faegre Baker Daniels LLP — Dan Schwartz — Chicago, IL Faegre Baker Daniels LLP — Kathryn Warner — Denver, CO Faegre Baker Daniels LLP — Steven Wiemer — Denver, CO Faegre Baker Daniels LLP — Ryan Duebner — Denver, CO Faegre Baker Daniels LLP — Bob O’Loughlin — Denver, CO Fleit, Gibbons, Gutman, Bongini & Bianco, PL — Gary S. Winer — Coral Gables, FL Foley & Lardner — Joseph F. Janas — Chicago, IL Foley & Lardner — Roger Rozanski — Chicago, IL Foley & Lardner — Charles Carter — Milwaukee, WI Foley & Lardner — John Lazarus — Milwaukee, WI Foley & Lardner — Lisamarie Collins — Milwaukee, WI Holland & Hart — Jennifer Junkin — Salt Lake City, UT Holland & Hart — Dick Schulze — Reno, NV Holzer Patel Drennan — Rachel Carnaggio — Denver, CO Husch Blackwell — Marriam Lin — St. Louis, MO Interdigital Holdings, Inc. — John B. Gillick, Jr. — Wilmington, DE Interdigital Holdings, Inc. — Damian C. Hamme — Wilmington, DE IP Services — John Tolomei — Palatine, IL Jin and Vidhani Consultancy LLP — Dr. Dinesh Vidhani — Tallahassee, FL Jin and Vidhani Consultancy LLP — Dr. Yonghao Jin — Tallahassee, FL Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP — Stephen Dew — Altanta , GA Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP — Brett Mellor — Denver, CO Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP — Torrey Spink — Denver, CO Law Office of Nora M. Tocups — Nora M. Tocups — Decatur, GA Lewis Rice — Kirk A. Damman — St. Louis, MO Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Ben Kimes — Palo Alto, CA Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Sam Noel — Centerville, UT Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Steven Tam — Palo Alto, CA Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Cicero Brabham — Roseland, NJ Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Joseph Jones — Roseland, NJ Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Jonathan Wolfsberger — Palo Alto, CA Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Kevin Grange — Palo Alto, CA Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Kevin O. Grange — Centerville, UT Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Sam Noel — Centerville, UT Lowenstein Sandler LLP — Cicero Brabham — Roseland, NJ MBCB Attorneys — Jonathan Yates — Bloomington, IN McDonald Hopkins LLC — Mark C. Guinto — Cleveland, OH McDonell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff — Emily Miao — Chicago, IL Medtronic — Tiffany Parcher — Boulder, CO Mohr IP Law — Devin Miller — Salt Lake City, UT Neal Gerber Eisenberg — Michael Harlin — Chicago, IL Patterson + Sheridan LLP — Matthew Seeley — Houston, TX Perkins Coie LLP — Kevin John Patariu — San Diego, CA Pham IP Group — Frank Pham — Houston, TX Poly-Med, Inc — Mary Anthony Merchant, JD, PhD — Atlanta, GA Quarles & Brady — Justin DeAngelis — Chicago, IL Quarles & Brady — Erin Fox — Chicago, IL Rabicoff Law — Kenneth Matuszewski — Chicago, IL Rosenbaum IP — Ben Rotman — Northbrook, IL Schwegman Lundberg Woessner — Michael R. Mischnick — Minneapolis, MN Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP — Thomas Wiseman — Washington, DC Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP — Greg Kirsch — Altanta , GA Southeaster IP Consulting LLP — John R. Sweet — Altanta , GA Stinson Leonard Street, LLP — Judy Carlson — Kansas City, MO Stinson Leonard Street, LLP — David Kim — Kansas City, MO The Richards Law Firm LLC — William B. Richards — New Albany, OH Thomas Hostermeyer — Richard T. Timmer — Atlanta, GA Tom F. Pruitt PLLC, Retired — Tom Pruitt — Nacogdoches, TX Vedder Price — Sudip Mitra — Chicago, IL Vitaley, Vickrey, Niro & Gasey LLP — Oliver Yang — Chicago, IL WilmerHale — Ben Fernandez — Denver, CO Womble Bond Dickinson LLP — Dan Ovanezian — Palo Alto, CA Womble Bond Dickinson LLP — Bill Jacobs — Palo Alto, CA


What have the above individuals actually done? They "reported 50 or more hours of patent pro bono service to a regional patent pro bono program." They basically aided patent maximalism under the guise of "pro bono" (free). Their volunteer work can end up causing lawsuits and there may be real victims. Look at the comments; it's only 4 comments from the same person -- rants about Alice that are totally tosh. This is just what we have come to expect from patent maximalists.

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