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Report on Colorado IP Bar discussion of Prez candidates' IP policies

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Out-law.com has a report on the discussion of the presidential candidates' positions on intellectual property, from the meeting in Denver on August 27.

Chris Sprigman said that Reines' comments were "the rhetorical equivalent of vapourware".

Although the report does not mention that Obama's "gold-plated" patent (applications) are a re-cycled Lemley-ism, one is troubled that Obama's "idea" is copied from someone else. It's not a new idea or a good idea. How does that stack up to vapourware?

Separately, the backgrounds of the participants evoked some of the issues brought up by Palin on September 3: two IP attorneys (neither of them registered) for McCain and two professors (neither registered patent attorneys) for Obama. One can almost hear the word "zero" resonating in the hallway.

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Correction. An earlier posting incorrectly stated there were two registered patent attorneys for McCain. It was pointed out by a UofC Law '93 that Ray Gifford, UofC Law '92 is not a registered patent attorney. Separately, both Barack and Michelle Obama have strong ties to the University of Chicago, and also note that Michelle has been listed as an IP attorney (below). Jon Dudas, USPTO director but not a patent attorney and Grey Mayer, registered patent attorney, are both UofC Law '93. Lemley did not graduate from UofC Law and is not a registered patent attorney.

To be clear on one point, LBE's issue is with the stupidity of the re-cycled Lemley-ism, not with Obama per se. Borrowing ideas from law reviews can be hazardous, as Joe Biden illustrated at Syracuse.

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Daniel Sherwinter and Lucky Vidmar wrote in Intellectual Property Today:

Special Feature: Intellectual Property Policy and the Presidential Election - A Discussion on its Future by Leading Policy Advisors to the Candidates

The article noted Reines accused Obama of a general lack of foresight or success in his policies. Reines pointed to Obama?s sponsorship of a law excluding some tax-related patents, which saw a quick death in the Senate, and to Obama?s support of so-called "gold plated" patents (an idea stemming largely from an article written by Professor Mark Lemley).

Obama's "novel" ideas in innovation are re-cycled law review articles.

There is a link to a video of the Denver discussion, which is NOT Mac-friendly.

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For McCain-->

Ed Reines, senior partner at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal, and Manges, immediate past president of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, and a member of Senator McCain?s Justice Advisory Committee, and Ray Gifford, partner at the law firm of Kamlet, Shepherd & Reichert.

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As a footnote, a bio of Michelle Robinson Obama on womensissues notes

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Michelle joined the law firm of Sidley Austin as an associate specializing in marketing and intellectual property. Michelle met Barack at Sidley & Austin, where she was his mentor when he spent his 1L summer at Sidley. Whether they discussed IP at Sidley in the summer of 1989 is not known. Barack graduated Harvard Law in 1991. Wikipedia notes that the UofC Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. In 1996, Michelle joined the University of Chicago as associate dean of student services.

There is a very oblique reference to Michelle's Princeton thesis on the womenissues site: She was one of very few black students attending Princeton at the time, and the experience made her acutely aware of the issues of race.

Full post as published by IPBiz on September 04, 2008 (boomark / email).