
Former Google exec Lee confirmed to lead U.S. patent office - cleverjake
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/us-usa-patents-lee-confirmation-idUSKBN0M52DO20150309
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thinkcomp
...which still requires you to mail floppy disks or CD-ROMs containing one
Excel spreadsheet file in order to update your customer number. See
[http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewIC?ref_nbr=201209-06...](http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewIC?ref_nbr=201209-0651-012&icID=186503).

...and has no static URLs for patent applications.

...and just gave a contract for $800K to a company with no experience, that
lied about its incorporation date (it was in business for eight days), and
that has produced no product for the USPTO thus far after months, causing at
least two other bidders (myself included) to protest formally. See
[http://www.gao.gov/products/B-410658](http://www.gao.gov/products/B-410658).

The USPTO does a lot of things, and some of them well, but IT is not one of
them.

~~~
eob
Interesting.. so what's the backstory behind the company that got the
contract?

It may just be the PIs have a good track record..

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higherpurpose
Let's hope she all but kills the "business method" patents (for which
Microsoft killed the reform in Congress [1], but of which Google owns a lot,
too [2]), if not most software patents, as well as any other patents that are
related to the patents in the Alice ruling [3].

I'm also sure that's an endeavor the "new" Microsoft will support, too (unless
the "new" Microsoft is actually the _old_ Microsoft with a fresh coat of PR
paint all over it, in which case it probably won't).

[1] - [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
switch/wp/2013/11/20...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
switch/wp/2013/11/20/software-patent-reform-just-died-in-the-house-thanks-to-
ibm-and-microsoft/)

[2] - [http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2015/01/21/software-and-
business-m...](http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2015/01/21/software-and-business-
methods-more-than-half-of-google-microsoft-us-patent-grants/id=53936/)

[3] -
[http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/business_method_a...](http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/business_method_and_software_patents_may_go_through_the_looking_glass_after)

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bwy
Seems like many of the comments here are/will be railing on patent trolls and
disgusting corporate enterprises making money off of ideas they claim to have
come up with. I actually don't know or really care too much about those
issues, but as a student working with patent data in a research lab, I hope to
goodness they address their bureaucracy. The patent data they put out is way
behind the technology we have today and it's really hampering research in that
area, and consolidating it is something we're still dealing with that doesn't
even touch on the disambiguation problem yet!

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zik
I certain hope she helps to "blunt the patent troll problem" as suggested in
the article. The patent system seems desperately sick right now.

~~~
baldfat
Without more staff and without more clear laws and court decisions this isn't
going to change.

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coding4all
This seems like a conflict of interest for some reason... I wonder if she'll
ever go back to Google in a few years?

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mrits
Where would we get experts from? Please don't say academics.

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littletimmy
Why not say academics?

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EpicEng
Complete and utter lack of real-world industry experience?

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spacemanmatt
That is the tropiest trope that ever troped.

~~~
EpicEng
I'm not sure you know what that word means.

~~~
spacemanmatt
You might be surprised to find that your assertion, reduced to a stereotype,
then used in a metaphor about familiar situations meets the connotation if not
also the definition of a trope for my earlier upvoters.

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shmerl
Sounds like good news. It's past due for that office to actually do something
to prevent patent abuse and low quality patents.

~~~
njloof
Yes, when I was younger I too would have thought, "Thank goodness someone will
run the patent office that understands software."

Now I think, "As a Google shareholder, she is too invested in the status quo."

~~~
TeMPOraL
If patents are really hindering innovation in software, then maybe it will be
more beneficial to Google and to her personally to disrupt the status quo.

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Animats
She's been acting head for years. No big deal.

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littletimmy
How is the government certain that there is no conflict of interest here? She
definitely holds google stock as an employee. Who is to say that doesn't bias
her decision making?

~~~
ocdtrekkie
I'm sure it does. Google culture is pretty heavily ingrained among employees.
And Google seems to have taken a strong interest in acquiring influence in the
US government. They also have a former employee holding the Chief Internet
Officer role at the White House, and Google has heavily supported over a dozen
Congressional campaigns, which has actually come to fruition in the form of
those Congresspeople sending blatant "please don't rule against Google"
letters to the EU Parliament.

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comment_god
google = gov

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comment_god
if microsoft did this back in the day everything would be different...

~~~
spacemanmatt
Tell me about how Microsoft didn't play politics back in the day, and how
everything was so much better when they had fewer serious competitors.

