USPTO Sued Over "Unqualified Appointment"

Techdirt is reporting that a small group of patent lawyers and investors are suing the US Secretary of Commerce in order to prevent the appointment of Margaret Peterlin to Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office. "According to the suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Congress amended the Patent Act in 1999 to require that the Director and Deputy Director of the USPTO each have "professional experience and background in patent or trademark law." Peterlin's appointment, announced May 8, violates the statute because she "lacks the requisite professional experience and background," the suit said. [...] They are asking the court to order Gutierrez to dismiss Peterlin immediately and establish rules to assess what qualifies as a professional background and experience in patent or trademark law. They also want the court to order Gutierrez to appoint a replacement for Peterlin who fulfills those requirements."

Comments

Re:no standing

[Attila Dimedici]

If you believe that CO2 is a pollutant, than you should stop breathing, because every time you breathe you are polluting the atmosphere. If people had believed that the Clean Air Act could have extended to CO2, it never would have passed.

Re:no standing

[Attila Dimedici]

"If people had believed that the Clean Water Act could have extended to shit, it never would have passed." Actually, no. The Clean Water Act applied to shit from day one. I hate to have to tell you this but shit does not automatically end up in the water. As a general rule if a person were to shit out in the middle of nowhere it would end up on the ground. Putting shit into water was a technological development. Putting CO2 into the air just happens, all the time. We have developed systems to keep our shit out of the streams, lakes and oceans. Exactly how are you going to keep the CO2 you breathe out out of the atmosphere?

Re:Thomas Jefferson didn't like black people eithe

[Dun Malg]

Thomas Jefferson didn't like black people either.. so, um, does that make him right? Your point might have had merit if not for the fact that a) Jefferson was against slavery, and b) very likely fathered children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. So instead, you just look like an ignorant moron.