Humotropy

He knows what’s up with the patent system.  As I learn more and more about the Patent system in the US (and yes, this means you will have to read the occasional patent-related post) I begin to see the system’s innumerable flaws.  Anyone who has gawked at Amazon’s One-Click patent* will be keenly aware that we have yet to achieve perfection in this area.  Thus, the need for reform.

As I learn from Arti Rai at Patently-O (erotically suggestive?) law blog (no.), the Obama technology platform has a number of well-considered proposals for PTO reform. Here’s the relevant snippet:

Giving the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) the resources to improve patent quality and opening up the patent process to citizen review will reduce the uncertainty and wasteful litigation that is currently a significant drag on innovation. With better informational resources, the Patent and Trademark Office could offer patent applicants who know they have significant inventions the option of a rigorous and public peer review that would produce a “gold-plated” patent much less vulnerable to court challenge. Where dubious patents are being asserted, the PTO could conduct low-cost, timely administrative proceedings to determine patent validity.

So, there are a number of nice things in here. For one, Obama wishes to open patent prosecution to the public. This makes sense given that patent examiners are not experts in the field of invention whilst others may be. Thus, finding prior art for patents becomes a less costly exercise in areas where there is a lot of inventive activity (read: lots of potential for patent litigation later).

The other two items noted in the passage seem like two sides of the same coin. First, Obama proposes a method of securing a ‘gold-plated’ patent - one which has gone through a test of higher rigor and is, thus, less vulnerable to being declared invalid in court. The flip side to this is a special review process for patents whose validity comes in to question. Patent examiners may not have time to sort out all the issues related to a suspect application, so it makes sense that given no obvious violation of statute, let the patent issue and the CAFA (Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) sort it out.

Make no mistake that America’s future global economic competitors will compete on more than just the price of labor. The protection and incentive offered by a robust, nimble and intelligent patent system is critical if the United States is to maintain competitiveness against the brains of the rest of the planet. To see my candidate speak so early about this important (albeit nerdy) issue of the law is heartening, to say the least.