Bonum Certa Men Certa

Emerging Threat to Patent Reforms at the USPTO

Make Patents Great Again



Summary: Our plan of returning to coverage of US patent affairs in the wake of powerful lobbies that pursue patent maximalism

TO our regret -- but not to our surprise -- there are increasingly dangerous development with the potential to undo a lot of positive progress at the USPTO. We have some upcoming news/analysis about the departure of Michelle Lee, the role played by David Kappos as a lobbyist along with AIPLA, and so much more (perhaps about 20 articles, some of them pretty long). We have been drafting these articles for quite a while, but did not find time to finalise these (maybe this weekend, hopefully).



"Microsoft's patent trolls, moreover, get another cash infusion from Microsoft/Bill Gates."Our focus on EPO seemed a lot more important, but right now we find that Trump the "Swamp" is moving fast(er), causing destruction to all sorts of older policies (see [1,2] from the news below).

Microsoft's patent trolls, moreover, get another cash infusion from Microsoft/Bill Gates. It's not limited to Intellectual Ventures and it poses a real threat to GNU/Linux.

It seems to be getting more urgent/important for Techrights to return to covering software patents, preferably before the meeting of the Administrative Council (when volume of EPO coverage grows two- or three-fold).

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. White House Plan To Reduce Drug Prices... Is To EXTEND Patents?


    While Congress is still doing its thing to try to make the US healthcare system an even bigger laughingstock around the world, the White House is apparently considering an executive order targeting high drug prices. Of course, it handed this power over to Joe Grogan, a (very recent) former lobbyist for a giant pharma company, Gilead, that has been at the center of some controversy over its highly priced drugs. Grogan is apparently leading this effort despite not having an ethics waiver, which means he's supposed to recuse himself from these discussions, rather than lead them. But, you know, that's not happening in the swampy, swampy waters of Washington DC. So just what would Grogan suggest as a way to lower drug prices? How about extending pharmaceutical patents? Yes. Extending.


  2. STRONGER Patent Act introduced in US Senate to reform PTAB
    The STRONGER Patent Act would reform the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and address “the continual weakening of patent rights by the courts”, according to sponsors Senators Coons, Cotton, Durbin and Hirono


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