Patents

Statement on USPTO Director Iancu’s Speech to the Eastern District of Texas Bar Association

Statement on USPTO Director Iancu’s Speech to the Eastern District of  Texas Bar Association

Last week, United States Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu gave a speech to the Eastern District of Texas Bar Association, where he implied that patent trolls were not a real problem faced by innovators, but instead just a “narrative” made up to scare away innovators. Not only is this factually inaccurate, but it is troubling that Director Iancu would ignore the overwhelming data showing that low-quality patents have led to a rash of abusive patent litigation directed towards small companies and entrepreneurs over the past decade.

Panel Round-Up: Design Patents and Defining the Article of Manufacture

Panel Round-Up: Design Patents and Defining the Article of Manufacture

The panel discussion, “Design Patents and Defining the Article of Manufacture – One Year Later,” was moderated by Julie Samuels, President of the Board at Engine Advocacy and Executive Director at Tech:NYC. The expert panel also featured Charles Duan, Senior Fellow and Associate Director of Tech and Innovation Policy at R Street Institute; G. Nagesh Rao, a 2016 USA Eisenhower Fellow and former Patent Examiner and Senior Policy Advisor at the USPTO; and Matthew Levy, former Patent Counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA).

2017 Year in Review: Patents

2017 Year in Review: Patents

While patent trolls remain a problem, in 2017, startups started to see some relief from nefarious patent litigation. The decrease in patent litigation abuse stems largely from meaningful Supreme Court rulings and the continued implementation of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Engine to Testify before House Judiciary Committee on Bad Patents

Engine to Testify before House Judiciary Committee on Bad Patents

Julie will testify to the Committee on the weaknesses in the patent system and the progress that has been made to weed out low-quality patents by Congress, the courts and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.