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Kappos at the Senate on July 29

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

William New, at Intellectual Property Watch, wrote of David Kappos before the Senate:

But in the process, Kappos showed possible weaknesses in separating himself from his job at IBM and the need for international diplomacy on IP enforcement.

Of nuts and bolts issues at the USPTO:

Kappos said he has been asked by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to ?refashion the patent examination process.? He said he will ?completely remake? the count system, which will help morale and to get to applications that matter. A key focus, he said, is the huge backlog in patent applications, and to ?refashion the fee system? to make it more accurately associate fees with the work that is being done. He also would work on ?fixing? fee diversion from USPTO.

Webcast of Kappos proceeding on 29 July 09

In a post Senators See Patent Office Nominee as Possible Ally, the Blog of LegalTimes noted:

Kappos, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said little today about the position the Patent and Trademark Office should take on legislation. Under questioning from Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Kappos said his decisions would not be unduly influenced by his recent work as vice president and assistant general counsel for IBM Corp. His priority would be ?doing the right thing for the American people,? Kappos said.

Specter, employing apparent sarcasm, replied to Kappos: ?Doing that will satisfy everybody.?

IBM, and certain Senators, have been pushing for patent reform, including such things as "oppositions." The headline of the LegalTimes blog item is quite accurate.

See also

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/07/wsj-on-problems-at-uspto-and-kappos.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2009/07/kappos-ibm-options-and-hearing-for-29.html

Full post as published by IPBiz on July 29, 2009 (boomark / email).