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Kappos and IBM in May 2009

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

On May 8, 2009 Foley hosted a webinar in its Patent Nation Web Conference series titled, "IP Outlook in the Reform Era." The participants included Foley & Lardner attorneys Jonathan Spivey, Jon Dudas, Courtenay Brinckerhoff, and Sharon Barner, along with IBM's David Kappos, now indicated to be the nominee of Barack Obama for undersecretary at Commerce and Director of the USPTO. The webiner has been pushed at Patently-O on 21 June 09.

What's interesting is "what else" was going on around that time.

On May 7, 2009 , one got a look at IBM's US published application 20090119148, titled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY, which included as Claim 1:

A method including:

defining, by a user, a time template including a plurality of predefined time intervals for scheduling meetings; and
applying the time template across a collaborative system.

On May 9, 2009, one had a post at slashdot:

Does anyone have a "reliable" source that says IBM fucked up?

In my little david vs goliath here, that's what I'm getting, and the page keeps being reverted. And here I'm thinking CowboyNeal is a reliable source...

In any case, if I lose, there are reliable sources for the "paper or plastic" patent [theregister.co.uk], the "but I only had soup" patent [informationweek.com], the offshoring patent [thestandard.com], the "who is going to poo next" patent [ito.com], the "terry is a boy, jeena is a girl" patent [slashdot.org], etc. And here's a comment on IBM's patent schizophrenia [blogspot.com]. And here's another comment on how IBM makes money by destroying value [halfsigma.com].

I have nothing against IBM or other patent trolls, I just want them to look in the wikipedia mirror to see if they are happy with who they are. This will only stop with a big streisand.

The slashdot post did not include OTHER discussions of problematic IBM patents and applications. Some mention on IPBiz includes:

IBM to withdraw second patent application on outsourcing (April 4, 2009)

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/04/patent-reform-2008-as-house-of-mirrors.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/05/ibm-patent-application-on-scheduling.html

And, of news coverage,

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-is-news-coverage-of-patent-reform.html

Full post as published by IPBiz on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).