Tag: USPTO

This has to be one of my favorite stories this year: it seems that patent trolls are the victims of extortion by a new breed of troll (registration required). Here’s the scenario: a patent troll fi...

There were no big surprises in today’s hearing on Michelle Lee’s nomination as head of the USPTO. The Committee went fairly easy on her with their questions, with the possible exception of Senator...

[caption id="attachment_5015" align="alignleft" width="200"] USPTO Deputy Director Michelle Lee[/caption] The White House announced yesterday that it's nominating current Deputy Director Michelle Lee...

“Patent quality” is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot. Everyone, it seems, agrees that the [define term="USPTO"] could do a better job on patent quality. Why is it that poor quality...

[caption id="attachment_4983" align="alignleft" width="225"] © 2014 Ebyabe, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0[/caption] Dennis Crouch over at Patently-O reports that for Fi...

There have been a few scandals at the USPTO in recent weeks. First was a report of nepotism in hiring on the trademark side of the PTO. Then, there were reports that some paralegals working for the Pa...

Well, this is good to see: Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), joined by Senator Mark Begich (D-AK), Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), sent a letter ye...

[caption id="attachment_4239" align="alignleft" width="258"] Photo by Alex E. Proimos, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0[/caption] This story is so embarrassing for the U.S. Patent & Trademark O...

Well, it’s happened. A patent that I co-invented has issued. Of course, I don’t own it, because it was based on my work as a software engineer at IBM. But I do take some pride; the invention came ...