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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."
Nope, too much prior art.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
She's a member of the Federalist Society, isn't that enough? http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/id.54/author.a sp
What more could you want?
Redressability is simple, having the federal government follow the law.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Given their apparent difficulty in finding 'prior art' for a wide variety of patents, it seems the USPTO is probably full of "Unqualified Apoint[ees]".
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Science -- Sealed, Delivered.
How do you figure? If the law states that candidates must have "professional experience and background in patent or trademark law" and the candidate lacks these (as she does), then they have grounds to open a civil action and attempt to prove it in court. This is right up with the EPA getting sued for not regulating carbon emissions
And the obvious redress would be to kick the unqualified candidate and replace her with a qualified candidate...One whose credentials include more than being J. Dennis Hastert's Counsel for Legal Policy.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
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.
It would have been so much easier if Congress had just made the law say "must have been a registered U.S. patent attorney for at least 5 years before appointment."
WTF? Someone, who is otherwise unqualified, is getting a political appointment? What's going on here?
This is outrageous - does President Bush know about this? Probably not. I'm sure if he did he'd do something about it - that's his no-nonsense way.
Nobody said they were suing for damages...a suit (especially in government) can merely end up in the court ordering something to be done. So, it may not be illegal to *not* enforce the law, but it *IS* illegal to disobey a court order.
More like they simply don't give a shit. And why should they? We're not holding them accountable.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
She has a generally strong political background but appears to be qualified in no particular whatsoever. That's a far cry from being "totally" qualified.
Totally qualified would mean qualified in all respects, not just maybe a vague hand wave because she knows how to work the political machine.
That appears to be the essential problem. People somehow have developed the hubris that any sufficiently talented generalist can master a new field in short order and lead it to success. Not so. A senior position in any field requires someone who knows the field. And at our present level of complexity, that degree of mastery takes a lifetime.
You can settle for less in the name of political expediency, but don't fool yourself that it's just as good an appointment as someone who actually knew the field well. A totally qualified candidate would know the field and be able to get along with the political establishment. You're getting half a slice of pie.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
From the plaintiff's letter to the judge: While we appreciate Ms. Peterlin's accomplishments, we are nonetheless surprised that her biography does not include any apparent references to professional activity concerning patents or trademarks, in either a practical, corporate, academic, or publishing capacity. http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-questions -credentials-of.html
Also, given the Cheney/Bush regime's attempts to politicize all levels of our government, usually at the expense of competency, *every one* of their appointments should be viewed with extreme jaundice. See Gonzalez, Alberto, amongst many others.