Finding Your Dark Arts Expert
| Originally posted April 23, 2024 on Linked-In |
I am starting a series of LinkedIn blog posts about patent asset development which I hope folks in my network find entertaining and informative. I am also hoping to reach folks in my network, and possibly beyond, that are looking for new patent representation.
Keeping cool in the face of difficult "officers."
| Originally posted May 10, 2024 on Linked-In |
The patent system is a pretty unique area of law. When I was Primary Patent Examiner for the United States Patent and Trademark Office, I likened my role to that of a street cop. In a sense, we were both “officers.” Except, instead of protecting the peace, I protected the “public domain.” The public domain consists of all knowledge that is freely and publicly available to anyone. A person wanting to obtain a patent had to limit their patent to only new things – it could not encroach on what was already known in the public domain. So, my job was to examine a patent application, figure out if the invention being claimed was already known, and if so, reject it as being unpatentable. If I failed to do my job properly, the government could inadvertently give a private party exclusive rights to something that should freely belong to everyone. If I failed in a different way, I could deprive a deserving member of the public of their rights in their own invention. This ex parte process (i.e., without an opposing party) need not be adversarial as in many other areas of law.