In a surprising turn of events, the Supeme Court will review the Federal Circuit’s Bilski decision. Arguments will take place some time during the October 2009 term. An opinion would be expected by early 2010.
Does this mean that there is still life for business method patents? Who knows. Hopefully, it at least means that the Federal Circuit’s new machine-or-transformation test will be short lived.
Since my last update on the issue–when it seemed that the announcement of a new PTO director nomination was imminent–there is nothing concrete to report. We still have no official announcement of the nominee.
Granted, President Obama has been a bit busy with issues such as a Supreme Court nomination, the bankruptcy of General Motors, the issues surrounding closing Guantanamo Bay, the nuclear testing by North Korea, and the like. But, there has been news for about a month that a candidate has been selected and was being vetted by the administration.
The three leading names last month were Q. Todd Dickinson, David Kappos, and James Pooley. Pooley has been nominated to be the Deputy Director General for patents at the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO). It’s safe to say that he is out of the running for the PTO director position.
Rumors have been rampant that Obama will probably choose Kappos. There has been a fair amount of negative pushback on this choice, for the reasons given in my previous update. Is this pushback causing the holdup?
Last week, another name emerged. The National Journal reported that Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA) has recommended Doug Luftman, associate general counsel for Palm, Inc., the smartphone manufacturing company. A spokesperson for Rep. Honda noted that Luftman has “knowledge of the patent process from idea to product” and “recognizes the disarray” of the PTO and could provide management expertise to help. Luftman also has experience with Caspian Networks, CIENA Corp., and Intel. Prior to entering corporate practice, he was an attorney with the law firm Fenwick & West.
Earlier this year, Palm Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mary Doyle wrote a blog post on Palm’s official blog supporting the Patent Reform Act of 2009. The post noted that Palm’s goal is that:
worthy inventions will be patented expeditiously and compensated fairly while at the same time pioneering innovators will have the freedom to invest in new products without the threat of opportunistic litigation and disproportionate damages awards.
Palm is working with the Coalition for Patent Fairness to support patent reform. As previously noted on this blog, the Coalition supports limiting the power of patents.
The upshot is that Kappos is still the leading candidate for the position. Palm strongly supports limitations on patents and a Luftman nomination would please reform proponents. It is unlikely that reform opponents, such as the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, would support a Luftman nomination.
Although PTO director is not the most high profile administration nominee, President Obama is falling behind his predecessors, as President Clinton nominated a new director in April of his first year in office and President Bush nominated a new director in May. There are numerous very pressing issues on the president’s agenda, but the PTO is in desperate need of new leadership. We need President Obama to recognize this and act quickly.
