Photo credit: The American Lawyer

Summary: Further analysis of Andrei Iancu's career path amid a call for appointment, rendering him the most likely candidate for USPTO Director

Andrei Iancu's nomination is a subject we had studied just before the weekend started and before lots of blogs started writing about it. In fact, we wrote about it after a lot of research and earlier today Mr. Mullin, a guru in the area of patent trolls, had this to say:

His most notable work in the tech sector is likely his representation of TiVo Corp. in its long-running patent battles with companies like EchoStar, Motorola, Microsoft, Verizon, and Cisco. TiVo ultimately succeeded in compelling those defendants to pay up for its pioneering DVR patents, and payments to TiVo ultimately totaled more than $1.6 billion, according to Iancu's biography page.

Iancu also had a hand in Immersion Corp's $82 million jury verdict against Sony Computer Entertainment in which a jury found that Immersion's patent claims on tactile feedback technology were valid and infringed.

Those big wins aside, most of Iancu's work has been on the defense side. He has represented eBay in a case against Acacia Research Corp., a large publicly traded non-practicing entity, and he worked for Hewlett-Packard when it defended against Xerox patent claims.

Naturally, Mullin focused on cases and companies that he wrote many articles about.

So, Iancu does have some experience also fighting against patent trolls, such as Acacia. Moreover, as Josh Landau from CCIA explained earlier today: "He has also participated in inter partes review proceedings, both on the side of the patent owner and on the side of petitioners. However, he has never worked in government or as in-house counsel in industry."

"Ultimately, it would be nice to have someone with a technical background in charge."So his position on PTAB is still unknown and Landau says that people will be watching closely where he stands on the subject. Michelle Lee has, on numerous occasions, expressed satisfaction and support for PTAB.

Benjamin Henrion wrote: "If the USPTO persists in granting software and soft+hard patents, we'd end up in exactly the mess we're in right now" (he too is questioning Trump's nomination).

Ultimately, it would be nice to have someone with a technical background in charge. The USPTO is, after all, an inherently technical place. We have already named one such person (of a technical nature), Drew Hirshfeld. Joe Matal (interim/temporary Director) is being lobbied to crush PTAB and as we shall show later this week Dennis Crouch too joins this lobby, stripping any illusion of impartiality. ⬆