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What USPTO should do — make patent assignments viewable

USPTO, in response to pressure from the White House and from big companies that are recipients of cease-and-desist letters, recently published proposed rules with a stated goal of promoting transparency in ownership of patents.  There are many things wrong (blog) with the proposed rules.  But there is a simple thing that the USPTO could do to promote transparency in ownership of patents that would not require rulemaking at all — make patent assignments viewable.

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A blog with a name – “Ant-like Persistence”

About two months ago I launched this blog.  It took me a while, but now I have picked a name for the blog.  The alert reader will recall Learned Hand’s (perhaps backhanded) compliment to patent practitioners, citing their “ant-like persistence” (Lyon v. Boh, 1 F.2d 48, 50 (S.D.N.Y.1924).  With a nod to those patent practitioners who at the start of the twentieth century exhibited the ant-like persistence that inspired Learned Hand to write this colorful phrase, I hereby dub this the “Ant-like Persistence” blog.

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Why not allocate USPTO examiner resources intelligently?

USPTO’s present practice is to try to make patent examiners examine cases pretty much in sequence according to their filing date.  The oldest case gets examined first, more or less.  (There are of course exceptions for example for cases that are on the Patent Prosecution Highway.)  I suggest this is not the smartest way for USPTO to allocate its examination resources.

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Design Day 2014

Tuesday, April 8, 2014 will be Design Day 2014.  This is an all-day program, free of charge, at the USPTO in Alexandria, Virginia.

Design Day is a very special annual event, co-sponsored by the USPTO, the IP Section of the American Bar Association, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Topics presented will include:

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