Reference: Inside How the Federalist Society & Koch Brothers Are Pushing for Trump to Reshape Federal Judiciary

THE USPTO is changing a little, especially at the top. While it's not clear whether it's leaning to the right or not, the new Director is indebted to Donald Trump, not just because his firm used to work for Trump but because Trump gave him the job. The same goes for Neil Gorsuch, who will soon have a say on patent cases at the US Supreme Court. Gorsuch too got his job from Trump (in spite of being incredibly young if not inexperienced for this role -- rarely a problem in the Trump administration).

"The USPTO is changing a little, especially at the top."The case of WesternGeco was recalled some days ago (a Supreme Court case regarding patent damages). We're just not sure yet when a decision will come, but this one -- like Oil States -- is going to shed light on where Justice Gorsuch stands on patents (he -- like Iancu -- is a Trump appointee). There's this recent portrait of Judge Evan Wallach. As one blogger put it: "The Court of International Trade commissioned a portrait of Judge Wallach a few years ago. Judge Wallach served on the Court of International Trade for sixteen years before being appointed to the Federal Circuit."

We mentioned him earlier this year in relation to some key cases [1, 2] (last year also). He sometimes dissents on Alice/Section 101, which Oil States can impact in the enforcement sense (IPRs).

"While it's not clear whether it's leaning to the right or not, the new Director is indebted to Donald Trump, not just because his firm used to work for Trump but because Trump gave him the job."As we last noted yesterday, the trolls' lobby likes to attack judges whose stance the lobby disagrees with. We cannot help wondering if Dennis Crouch has a thing for Trump. He very recently posted a Trump "tweet" as an 'article' (Trump talks nonsense by the way; it’s not “theft”, it’s the wrong term to use). The day beforehand he wrote about the Stormy Daniels lawsuit and just like Trump he seems to have a grudge with 'Mexican' judges. Patently-O drifting further to the right (like Watchtroll)? These two sites seem to be pushing many articles in favour of the GOP, sometimes embracing a Conservative ideology these days. Here's Watchtroll's latest peeve/rant about the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) and promotion of what seems like a software patents case.

Then there's Patent Docs, a site which is also composed by patent maximalists and now writes about TPP, including a very short portion on "Patentable Subject Matter".

"Iancu recently agreed to speak at an event organised by IAM (the patent trolls' lobby), which isn't a particularly encouraging sign."Patent Docs has not been very active lately; it mostly does event listings, e.g. this conference, self-promotional stunts called "Webinars" [1, 2], an Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) Webinar/Calendar [1, 2], and another Webcast.

While we expect the US Supreme Court to rule in favour of patent reform (e.g. narrowing patent scope), even unanimously, we still wonder if Gorsuch is connected to the Koch lobby and Iancu is blindly loyal to his former employer, which profits from patent maximalism. It's probably too early to tell, albeit predictions can be made based on their professional background and political orientation. Iancu recently agreed to speak at an event organised by IAM (the patent trolls' lobby), which isn't a particularly encouraging sign. ⬆