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Obama Taps IBM Open Source Advocate For USPTO
langelgjm writes "President Obama has announced his intent to nominate David Kappos, a VP and general counsel at IBM, to head the US Patent and Trademark Office. This move is particularly notable not only because of IBM's much friendlier attitudes towards open source compared with some of their rivals, but also because Kappos himself is open source-friendly: 'We are now the biggest supporters of the open source development project,' explains David. 'Admittedly this policy is not easily reconcilable with our traditional IP strategy, but we are convinced that it is the way to go for the future.' Not just a lawyer, Kappos earned an engineering degree before working in the legal field. Kappos has been described as 'critical of the American approach to patent policy.' Given his background, could this mean a new era for US patent policy?"
Really, my summary is hyped up a bit. I doubt that Kappos will usher in a new era on his own; so much of patent law depends on Congress and the courts anyway. However, given the views of his predecessor (Dudas is on record as saying that "we must also actively educate the world that it [our patent system] is fundamentally the best system"), Kappos is on record as saying that in the U.S., "Trivial patents are being granted. By contrast, the system is better in Europe."
I think Kappos' background is also notable. He's really the first director of the computer generation: got an engineering degree, began working at IBM as an engineer, and then went over to law as a patent lawyer. By contrast, previous directors have either not had technical backgrounds, or have jumped around in the IP fields (Q. Todd Dickinson began work at Baxter, a healthcare company). I think Kappos having been brought up in IBM will make him more open to (or at least less skeptical of) open source-type ideas than any of the other former directors, and his computer/engineering background will also make him more critical of our patent system, and not as focused on ratcheting protections up as far as they can go. Imagine, on the other hand, if the appointee had been someone from PhRMA.
It is not unusual that a patent lawyer would hold an engineering degree; in fact, to sit for the patent bar, one needs typically needs an engineering or science degree, and some patent lawyers have advanced degrees in their areas of specialty. However, I thought it worth mentioning given that the former director of the USPTO, Jon Dudas, did not have any engineering or science background, but rather a degree in finance.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
The fact that IBM has applied for about every known patent over the past 9 years never came up either.
what will become of my patented karate chop to the face?
http://www.hellowithcheese.com
Obama's decisions never hurt a fly.
I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
Not just a lawyer, Kappos earned an engineering degree before working in the legal field.
I thought an engineering degree, as well as passing the bar, was a requirement to practice patent law (at least in engineering-related branches if not in general).
So, given that he was a patent lawyer, that double degree is neither surprising nor unique.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Maybe. The USPTO must operate within the constraints set by Congress and the courts. Software patents were forced on them by the First Circuit: they opposed them initially.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Now I KNOW I'm not the only one who read it as "Omaha".
One interesting trend I'm seeing here (as people flock to fight "their" revolution on the Iran story a couple of posts below), is that while the vocal minority that is the Internet connected America keeps worrying about other countries affairs, the government does what it is supposed to do: legislate on internal matters.
It is more positive for USA and the world when their government does its homework and clean up their house, much better than when they try to fix the world and accomplish neither the former nor the latter.
They're not exactly thrilled about them now...
it will be a new era for i.t. globally.
Read radical news here
IBM:
I am
BASICALLY a
MORON
Tapped? What's with the Mainstream Media's latest buzzword?
"I was at the supermarket and I tapped the bottle of flavored milk. Then I decided to tap Checkout #6."
Last years MSM buzzword was "Lockdown."
"When I go to bed, I lockdown the house."
If the MSM wants to lift its flagging fortunes, it should work on the news rather than focusing on stupid buzzwords.
It's not politically fashionable on Slashdot to say anything good about the Democrats.
From the linked article:
IBM has a worldwide portfolio of 40,000 patents. About half are lodged in the USA and the remainder split between Europe and Asia (where, of course, China is increasingly featuring). So far this year, IBM has filed 3,000 patents and is on target, says David, to maintain its record for the past 14 years of consistently filing more patents than anyone else.
So, if the definition of "new era for patent policy" is "more software patents", then yes (though I fail to see how that is "new" except that it is pressing harder on the accelerator down this destructive road). Granted, IBM is opposed to business method patents, but that is no surprise since their ability to innovate in business models is legendarily lackluster.
Nothing to see here. Same old moneyed interests using their monopoly-built position to buy more government access so they can create more monopoly rent opportunities for themselves.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I sympathize for (but don't agree with) people who call out Obama's (admittedly many) poor decisions and shout "Is this the change you voted for? That was one hell of a marketing scheme"
Well I'm proud to say that, yes, this is the change I voted for. This is exactly the type of decision that makes me happy of my choice. Go Obama! I'm not thrilled about all of your decisions, but it's things like this that make me guardedly optimistic that the future of our country is in careful and intelligent
(Though I can't see at the moment how this will be spun as a negative, I'm sure it will be).
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
Boot to the head.
Now IBM is going to patent the USPTO itself!
saying "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," and expect the automatic stamp of +5 insightful on this story can I.
"Given his background, could this mean a new era for US patent policy?"
I hope. But I doubt it...HE will become a politician and then forget about the common good to all citizens.....
You could say that, and be modded way up. Slashdotters will come up with all kinds of spurious reasons why this is just terrible and why it means Obama is "OMG against our freedoms!" The actual truth doesn't matter to them.
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Since you're the rare Obama critic who doesn't see Pure Evil in his every move (such as his choice of condiments!) perhaps you could share some of your list of O's "many mistakes". I think he's actually done surprisingly well.
But more to the point, I crave an intelligent argument with a right-winger whose rhetoric goes beyond infantile insults and weird conspiracy mongering. When the conservatives were in charge, their abuse of logic and rhetoric would drive me up the wall. But now that they're out of power, their arguments are just a depressing sign of intellectual sloth. I guess they've had it too easy for too long.
People, get it together! It's your job as the opposition to keep us liberals honest! And it's a job you're not doing! Come one! Start pulling your weight! Isn't Personal Responsibility one of those Bennettish Virtues you keep harping on?
He's vice president and assistant general counsel for intellectual property at the company that patents more than anybody else. And they've been patenting more than anybody else for a long time (20 years? 30 years?). Companies like Microsoft wish they were patenting as much stuff as IBM does and I firmly believe the drive to patent everything in sight that we see in so many companies is spurred on by the fact that they are all trying to catch up with IBM.
I don't automatically believe this will be bad, but its hard to ignore the possibility that this could be giving the fat kid the key to the candy store.
The pessimist in me can't stop thinking that the only reason people don't seem to be as critical of IBM's massive patenting efforts despite the gap between them and 2nd place (Samsung now I believe) in the patenting world is that they've done the good PR of supporting OSS publicly while grabbing up all the IP they can for themselves.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
IBM: It's Better Manually
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
One day maybe they'll get it right and appoint someone with a working compass but it seems to me (from reading the article you linked) that Kappos' thinking is just as devoid of the empirically informed economic theory necessary to navigate patent system issues rationally and ethically as any of his predecessors'. Ironically, Dudas was probably slightly better placed background-wise to grasp why it's so extremely dubious that software should be patent eligible subject matter at all. A further irony is that IBM once (in the 1960s) at least seemed to understand patent system economics well enough to have made it their policy "...to be sure that nobody bottled up software and algorithms by getting patents on them.": http://web.archive.org/web/20060426151241/http://www.siam.org/siamnews/mtc/mtc593.htm
I don't know what being "more open to open source-type ideas" means. Nor would I use the term "IP" as you did. Software patents hurt all developers except those at IBM because IBM holds the most patents. Holding the most patents means IBM can cross-license far more easily than any other patent holder. In fact, we know how valuable cross-licensing is to IBM because IBM has told us. IBM has told us cross-licensing outweighs the value of collecting patent license fees by an order of magnitude. IBM got ten times the value of using patents held by others than licensing its own patents. This means IBM alone can skirt the trouble the patent system causes everyone else. IBM can completely undo the alleged advantage the patent system is supposed to give smaller organizations trying to commercially launch their work. You really should read Richard Stallman's examination of the US patent system as it applies to software development for a fuller description of the details on how IBM's statement in 1990 reveals the harm done to all software developers under the USPTO's thumb.
The solution is to completely deny anyone software patents so software developers can go back to relying on trademark and copyright law which is sufficient to avoid defrauding consumers and enforcing licenses, respectively. But I doubt the world's largest patent holder is in favor of disempowerment, and now that they have a man running the USPTO I doubt we'll see that office seeking to make software algorithms unpatentable.
I think what we're seeing here is just another instance of how corporate-friendly President Obama is. The more I read self-identified "open source" adherents saying how good this move is, the more I think that the open source movement is too corporate-friendly as well. Mere affiliation with a movement that isn't fighting for software freedom isn't doing you any favors; raise your critical standards and keep on fighting for the end of software patents.
Digital Citizen
Software patents were forced on them by the First Circuit
I think you mean either the Federal Circuit (e.g., In re Alappat and State Street) or the Supreme Court, depending on how broadly one reads Benson, Flook, and Diehr.
Given his background, could this mean a new era for US patent policy?
VERY SHORT ANSWER: No.
But it sounds like a nice development.
Property is theft.
http://www.techflash.com/How_a_Microsoft_veteran_learned_to_love_Linux_and_why_it_matters_48542167.html
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
As a European with a taste for good cheese, from Dutch Goudse or Leidse kaas, or pitjeskaas to French blue cheese or brie or goats cheese, I've always been confused with American Cheese:
First: it's not called cheese: its' called American Process Cheese Food (look on the Kraft bricks)
Second: which part are you supposed to eat? The thin crunchy transparent stuff that is around the square yellow substance, or the yellow plastic substance with no flavor or texture?
MADOFF + STANFORD + DREIER + SATYAM + FISERV + ALBERT HU + The 1031 Tax Group LLC - Edward H. Okun = PROSKAUER ROSE, FOLEY & LARDNER, IBM, INTEL, SGI and others. Can all these crimes be related to the theft of Intellectual Property by former IBM patent counsel and employees, could this be the reason Obama is tapping IBM executives and Foley & Lardner attorneys to key commerce positions, in effect to continue the cover up of the crimes against the United States Patent & Trademark Offices and inventors? At the heart of the matter are technologies that revolutionized the digital imaging and video content creation and distribution channels in almost every product that utilizes such technologies. The technologies opened the door for things like Internet and Cell Phone full screen, full frame rate video over low bandwidths. They solved for image pixel distortion on zoom of low resolution images and now are commonly found on all Digital Cameras, the Hubble, Space Simulators, Medical Imaging Devices, Televisions, Graphic Chips, Internet Video Players (i.e. Microsoft Media Player, Apple Quicktime, Real Player, etc.), Satellite and Military Imaging Applications. Coined the âoeHoly Grailâ of digital imaging and video by leading experts and engineers, from Intel, SGI and Lockheed, including Hassan Miah, the technologies were then alleged stolen by the very patent attorneys that were supposed to be patenting them, read on. I personally have been trying to notify regulators and authorities of a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR patent theft that is putting investors in certain tech companies at huge risk. Companies involved in the alleged crimes and now in a TRILLION dollar federal lawsuit include Intel, Lockheed, SGI and IBM. The companies involved in the fraud fail to acknowledge the risk exposing shareholders and citizens to impending liabilities as required by FASB accounting Rule 5, hiding the impending liabilities. A SEC complaint has been filed against Intel and Lockheed for failure to notify shareholders of liability @ http://www.iviewit.tv/CompanyDocs/20090325%20FINAL%20Intel%20SEC%20Complaint%20SIGNED2073.pdf Investigators, courts and federal agents have been notified of the crimes and evidence, including a car-bombing attempt on my life and the US Patent Office has now suspended the Iviewit Intellectual Properties pending investigations by the USPTO, the attorney disciplinary of the USPTO the Office of Enrollment and Discipline and Federal Authorities. I know how Harry Markopolos felt trying to expose Madoff in a world without regulation and where government agencies have been infiltrated to subterfuge the crimes by the law firms involved. Many of todayâ(TM)s biggest crimes like Madoff, Allen Stanford and Marc Drier are alleged tied to the thefts, as money laundering vehicles for the stolen inventor royalties. Did I hear Proskauer Rose is involved in Madoff (involved many clients too) and acted as Allen Stanford's attorney. Investors who lost money in these scams should start looking at the law firms, like Proskauer's assets for recovery. First, Proskauer partner Gregg Mashberg claims Madoff is a financial 9/11 for their clients, if they directed you to Madoff sue them. Then, Proskauer partner Thomas Sjoblom former enforcement dude for SEC and Allen Stanford attorney, declares PARTY IS OVER to Stanford employees and advises them to PRAY, this two days before SEC hearings. Then at the SEC hearings, he lies with Holt to SEC saying she only prepared with him but fails to mention Miami meeting at airport hanger which witnesses state was held to mislead SEC investigators. Then Sjoblom resigns as Stanford counsel and sends an email to the SEC disaffirming all statements made by him and Proskauer, his butt on fire. If you were burned in Stanford sue Proskauer. The FBI has arrested Stanford and the indictment clearly points to Sjoblom and Proskauer as the legal counsel involved in committing Fraud on th