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

Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
 
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025