Lying [again] to the American people, Obama appointed yet another big time lobbyist to a position which could potentially put small business innovation and individual inventors out of business.
Phyllis Schlafly, in a recent article "Patent Reform Is A Patent Giveaway", was correct to ascribe weakness of the Obama administration in succumbing to big corporations' patent reform agendas, at the expense of startups and small businesses, who produce the majority of new domestic American jobs.
President Obama brought into the Commerce Department and the US Patent Office (USPTO) big-business players who, prior to joining the administration, had lobbied on behalf of big corporations like Microsoft and IBM for patent reforms that serve only their interests. The problem is that these people did not cease the lobbying activity and are now actively doing so within the government while enjoying the deference to their office.
Earlier press accounts warned against this trend. It appears that no one listened and now the blatant lobbying continues more overtly. The USPTO Director David Kappos has used his position and government web sites to lobby for patent reform matters that have much more to do with his former employer's agenda and much less with his agency's expertise and responsibilities.
He has taken an overt public position in favor of the same things that he lobbied for so strongly while at IBM. In his recent advocacy for the patent reform appearing on the government site, he has exposed again his true colors and the success of the conspiracy to get officials in the positions of power to advance their former employers' agendas. Instead of focusing his patent legislation efforts on obtaining USPTO resources to improve examination quality prior to patent grant, Director Kappos advocates introducing new procedures at the USPTO to challenge the patents after his agency issues them (post grant review).
He also advocates a transition of the U.S. to the weak grace-period first-inventor-to-file system pushed by large corporations including his former employer. Both of these provisions would not only harm small business patentees, but would also undermine the direct mission of the USPTO. This is because they will increase delays in patent grants and reduce patent quality, if enacted.
With big-corporate IBM as his only experience, and as the head of an agency that has no expertise in small business invention development processes and entrepreneurship, Director Kappos purports to know better than small business patent applicants how the proposed patent legislation will affect their R&D and their patent application activities prior to filing. He received a December letter challenging his positions and identifying substantive and specific concerns of small business organizations on the proposed patent legislation. Nevertheless, in the February "Inventorseye" article linked above, Kappos had deliberately ignored substance and had repeatedly chosen a "red herring" to obfuscate and mischaracterize the concerns as a "First Inventor False Debate".
In supporting a U.S. transition to the weak grace-period first-inventor-to-file system, this administration reversed decades of U.S. government international intellectual property policy position that defended and maintained the long proven American system of a strong grace-period protection for the first-to-invent. All past Republican and Democratic administrations have understood the importance of this protection to small business, startups and individual inventors. Unfortunately, the Obama administration allowed its policies to be hijacked by big corporate lobbyist serving within it.
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Donald Berg is a RightSideNews.com reader and submitted this comment on Mrs. Schlafly's article.
