Bonum Certa Men Certa

USPTO Will Have a Crisis of Legitimacy If Its Officials Work as Lobbyists and Cooperate With Villainous Think Tanks

"[Y]ou're creating a new 20-year monopoly for no good reason."

--David Kappos, former Director of the USPTO



Summary: The latest examples of Andrei Iancu and David Kappos (current and former USPTO Directors, respectively) found 'in bed' with the patent microcosm (like the disgraced Judge Rader and unlike Michelle Lee, whom the patent microcosm constantly smeared to eventually oust)

THE EPO scandals are many. Too many to count. There's danger, however, that similar scandals will spread to the US (we wrote about some appointments by nepotism recently, including the CIO and the new chief, whose firm used to work for Donald Trump).



Here's the latest gossip from the Office. It's less than a day old. It's about Pam Isom, who is said to have hired her nephew by marriage:

https://twitter.com/CIO_Watchdog/status/983702339730190336

https://twitter.com/CIO_Watchdog/status/983742341105188865

According to these "Highlights" (highlighted by Managing IP on Tuesday), the USPTO's Director spoke at a Microsoft-sponsored propaganda event/think tank, Fordham IP. He is in bed with bad people. He will soon speak at an event of IAM, the patent trolls' lobby. A day earlier we saw him mentioned in this programme. It seems rather inappropriate for the USPTO to allow its Director to be lobbied quite so blatantly by AIPLA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce considering what both stand for. But here they go:

The program, which will focus on the impact of U.S. patent policy on the domestic innovation ecosystem, will include a keynote address by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu and a fireside chat with U.S. Circuit Judge Kimberly Moore.


Notice who's attending.

Meanwhile, David Kappos rears his ugly head again, this time in his capacity as a rogue lobbyist with connections. How much are these former USPTO Directors paid to lobby for software patents? Do they charge per day/hour? Or do they just rally corporate sponsors to give them lots of money? Kappos has a front group with corporate sponsors now.

What about "Activist" Judge Michel? Is he not really retired? He keeps popping up everywhere, hypocritically accusing SCOTUS Justices (higher level than he ever was in his career) of being "activists". As this new tweet quotes him (with a photo of him sitting next to Kappos): "Judge Michel: Activist Supreme Court judges are dictating national economic policy through their interpretation of the Patent Act. If I were Congress I wouldn’t put up with it!"

This comes from an event that Watchtroll too wrote about on Tuesday, under the headline "It is already too late, but we still have time" (time for what? Bashing judges?)

Paul Michel and David Kappos were there alongside the patent microcosm, which is pretty revealing. There was also someone there for "activist" politician Christopher Coons, who is trying to derail patent reform. To quote:

“It is surprising that we continue to make the same mistakes that we have made over the last several hundred years,” said Judge O’Malley as she opened the panel, which included Chief Judge Paul Michel (CAFC, ret.), David Kappos (former Director of the USPTO), venture capitalist Gary Lauder, Managing Director of Lauder Partners, and Jamie Simpson, USPTO Detailee to the Senate Judiciary Committee for Senate Christopher Coons.


Does the USPTO even care to realise how bad it looks when former officials join the lobbying industry and the current Director gives talks at events of think tanks? Even those that front for patent trolls? Michelle Lee almost never did such foolish things, yet the patent microcosm tried to frame her as the "scandalous" one.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025