08.18.18

David Ruschke, the PTAB’s Chief, is Moving So the Patent Maximalists Push Their Anti-PTAB Agenda

Posted in America, Patents at 2:53 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Scott Graham [1, 2, 3, 4] heard from PTAB practitioners that Ruschke is moving

Summary: As the chief judge of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) moves elsewhere at the USPTO there are those who hope that a replacement will undo PTAB inter partes reviews (IPRs), which generally improve the quality of granted patents

Michael Loney was one of the first people to report that Ruschke from PTAB is moving on (or sideways, or upwards). His background, which involves enduring attacks and abuse from patent maximalists, may not have suited his character. So here’s what’s coming next in his career:

David Ruschke, who has been Patent Trial and Appeal Board chief judge since 2016, has been given a role intended to improve the free flow between the Patents and PTAB business unites at the USPTO

It didn’t take long for the patent trolls’ lobby, IAM, to pressure Iancu to marginalise PTAB after Ruschke’s departure (or announcement thereof). IAM is not even pretending to respect PTAB; it’s a hostile trolls-funded think tank and under the loaded headline “Exit of PTAB chief judge gives Iancu further opportunity to put his own imprint on agency leadership” it wrote:

The news that David Ruschke, chief judge of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), is leaving his role to take up a new position at the USPTO took much of the DC patent community by surprise. After the move was disclosed in a town hall meeting on Tuesday and a memo from Director Iancu was circulated internally, PTAB practitioners started to pick up on events and by that evening it had hit the headlines, with Scott Graham over at law.com the first to break the story.

Scott Graham is another one of those patent maximalists, fed by other patent maximalists as his sourced (as we noted here before). With an imminent departure of a good and thick-skinned judge like Ruschke we need to watch closely who’s suggested as a replacement (and who by). █

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If David Chiles Turned the USPTO Into a ‘Microsoft Shop’ That Might Explain Three Days (or More) of Outages

Posted in America, Patents at 2:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

David Chiles is blamed by some, which gives him yet more unwanted attention [1, 2]

Summary: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is having profound technical issues; some already point their fingers at David Chiles, alleged to have been hired/promoted for the wrong reasons

THE INTERNAL affairs of the USPTO have vexed some insiders, who said that the CIO was hired/promoted for reasons associated with nepotism (people hired for family connections, not for skills). A few days ago we wrote about how the USPTO planned to penalise non-Microsoft customers, in effect favouring proprietary Microsoft formats over industry standards or open standards (which Microsoft obviously opposes).

“That’s far too much money and it is reminiscent of what goes on at the EPO where Battistelli’s companion is still the CIO.”Moments ago we accessed the official USPTO Web site only to be greeted with a pop-up that says: “A number of USPTO online business systems remain offline. We understand the impact to our users and the frustrations that come from having such systems down unexpectedly. The USPTO is working hard to resolve the issue and we will continue to provide updates to you. The latest information on alternative methods of filing and payment and our systems status can always be found on our website. More updates will be forthcoming.”

“Day Three of USPTO E-Filing Outages” is what Dennis Crouch called it a couple of days ago, so we assume that now it’s the fifth day in a row. “Note that the system failures do not automatically serve as any excuse for filing delays,” Crouch wrote. “The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is currently led by Acting Chief David Chiles and has a budget of $600 million.”

That’s far too much money and it is reminiscent of what goes on at the EPO where Battistelli's companion is still the CIO. █

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