IP Lawyer Who Represented TiVo Is Trump's Pick As USPTO Chief (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: President Donald Trump has selected Andrei Iancu, the managing partner of a major Los Angeles law firm, to be the next head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Iancu has been a partner at Irell & Manella since 2004 and was an associate at the firm for five years earlier. His most notable work in the tech sector is likely his representation of TiVo Corp. in its long-running patent battles with companies like EchoStar, Motorola, Microsoft, Verizon, and Cisco. TiVo ultimately succeeded in compelling those defendants to pay up for its pioneering DVR patents, and payments to TiVo ultimately totaled more than $1.6 billion, according to Iancu's biography page. Iancu also had a hand in Immersion Corp.'s $82 million jury verdict against Sony Computer Entertainment, in which a jury found that Immersion's patent claims on tactile feedback technology were valid and infringed. Those big wins aside, most of Iancu's work has been on the defense side. He's represented eBay in a case against Acacia Research Corp., a large, publicly traded non-practicing entity, and he worked for Hewlett-Packard when it defended against Xerox patent claims. He's also worked in the medical device area, enforcing patents for St. Jude Medical on vascular closure devices.

Comments

Hot Garbage

[PopeRatzo]

Who else but a patent troll would you think Trump would appoint to run the USPTO?

There has never been an administration this corrupt, this "pay-to-play", this openly and wantonly willing to break ethics laws. I'm not even sure there's anyone in second place. I mean, all the way down to over-charging the Secret Service for golf cart rentals when they take the frequent trips to Trump properties to make sure no one disturbs the royal golf games.

Re:Hot Garbage

[PopeRatzo]

So, what you're saying is that this guy, this parasite, that Trump appointed has been making a nice living by playing both sides of the patent dysfunction.

Perfect. He's like a doctor who works for the tobacco industry. He's a goddamn shyster, the worst possible type of person to run the USPTO. People like Andrei Iancu are why our patent system is so messed up.