We Need Biden’s Patent Office – to Not Act Like It’s Biden’s Patent Office

Seton Motley | Less Government | LessGovernment.org
Seton Motley | Less Government | LessGovernment.org
Let Us Please Not Have Any More of This

As we warned way back on August 4, 2020….

Biden’s ‘Build Back Never’: His Endless Government Assaults Will Make Building America Impossible

True to predicted form, President Joe Biden’s hyperactive government has eviscerated the once-historically robust Donald Trump economy.

There have been little pockets of the economy that have thus far been spared the full-on glare of Sauron’s eye.  Sectors that Biden’s government hasn’t attacked…yet.

Biden has been slow to nominate some high-level bureaucrats – giving stays to the sectors over which they would otherwise be lording.  Thankfully receiving this happy neglect has been the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

It wasn’t until October 26 that this happened….

Kathi Vidal Has Been Nominated to Head USPTO:

“(I)t likely will be February or March 2022 before any action is taken to confirm a nominee.”

The agency not having its leader has been exceedingly helpful – if Biden’s 455-or-so other agencies’ awful actions are any indication.

What the country really needs is for Vidal – when finally confirmed – to not have the USPTO act like a Biden Administration agency.

It’s a long shot, I know: But it would be outstanding if Vidal were to continue the exceedingly excellent work her Trump Administration predecessor Andrei Iancu did.

USPTO: One Deep State Swamp Backwater That Is Getting Drained

Iancu came in after a decade-plus of really terrible US patent policy.

Intellectual Property Crisis: U.S. Drops Out of the Top Ten in Innovation Ranking

And Iancu did all he could to reverse the terrible-ness:

“Iancu’s work to restore our patent system – has borne fruit.  By 2016, Obama and Company had driven us out of the top ten on the Global Innovation Index.

“We’re now back up to #3.  And rising with a bullet.”

The people who make our nation’s IP-creation sector work – were very big Iancu fans.  Behold this from October 2020.…

Letter to Congress: Iancu is Good for the Patent System:

“The undersigned represent a diverse array of American innovators, ranging from universities and non-profit foundations, to individual inventors, to start-ups and small businesses, to manufacturing, technology, and life sciences companies.

“Together we represent thousands of organizations that employ millions of workers in the United States. We all believe that the future of the U.S. economy, including domestic job growth and our competitive advantage in the global economy, depends on a strong patent system that incentivizes innovators to invent and protects their inventions from unfair theft by others.

“We write to express our support for the important improvements the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has implemented over the past several years under the leadership of Director Andrei Iancu.

“In this short period, Director Iancu has clearly changed the dialogue surrounding patents, defined the patent system by the brilliance of inventors, the excitement of invention, and the incredible benefits they bring to our economy and society as a whole.

“He continuously demonstrates commitment for restoring balance and confidence in the U.S. patent system.”

US creators – were VERY big Iancu fans….

Continue Iancu Reforms Should Trump Lose, Patent Owners Urge

A full year after the aforementioned letter was written, Biden finally announced Iancu’s prospective successor.  Does it look like she’s looking to continue Iancu’s outstanding work?  There are serious concerns she will not…:

“While most IP stakeholders agree Vidal is a strong and capable candidate, some have expressed concern about her ties to Silicon Valley and a potential return to Michelle Lee-era politics at the USPTO.”

Who is Michelle Lee, you ask?:

“Lee entered full-time public service in 2012 when she became Director of the USPTO’s office in Silicon Valley.

“Two years later, President Barack Obama appointed Lee to the position of Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO and then nominated her in short order for the agency’s top leadership position.

“The Senate confirmed the nomination, making Lee the first woman to serve as Director of the USPTO when she was sworn in on January 13, 2015.”

We absolutely do NOT want to return to Obama’s hyper-crony, Silicon-Valley-favoring, anti-IP policies.  You know, the policies that drove US out of the top ten in global IP creation.

The US Has Institutionalized Big Tech’s Intellectual Property Theft

Past Is Prologue: Obama-Biden Was Owned and Operated by Big Tech, So…

As Policymakers Say They Want to Rein in Big Tech, Others Seek to Give It Even More Power:

“The Push to Weaken IP:

“Once upon a time, the most successful American companies were built on a foundation of innovation and the development of new technology.

“Today, gigantic companies like Apple, Cisco, Intel and Google aren’t developing, buying or even licensing technology anymore. Instead, they’re just stealing it.

“And thus far, they’ve been able to do so because they keep pushing policies in Congress that further weaken our nation’s intellectual property rights.”

We do know Senate confirmation hearings are almost entirely just-for-show.  The nominees say whatever they need to say to avoid landmines – and get confirmed.

Vidal Looks All Set to Lead the USPTO After Confident Senate Hearing

Here’s hoping Vidal and her USPTO don’t do what almost all the rest of Biden’s Administration very many agencies are doing:

Destroying the sectors of the economy over which they lord.