Appointment of Former Commissioner for Patents Nicholas Godici to USPTO Consultant Position.
Per a USPTO press release issued earlier today:
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Takes Key Step to Address Patent and Trademark Office Challenges
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today announced the appointment of former USPTO official and long-time patent professional Nicholas Godici to look at ways to strengthen the management structure of the USPTO and provide an up-to-date assessment of the challenges the office faces. Godici, hired by current Acting Under Secretary for Intellectual Property and USPTO Director John Doll at Locke’s request, will work with USPTO officials to identify areas of concern and to assist in the transition to a new director. He will serve as a consultant for a period of up to 180 days.
President Obama nominated David Kappos, a patent professional with more than 20 years of experience, to be the next USPTO director on June 18.
“I’m counting on Nick to use his decades of experience to help us strengthen the management of the USPTO and identify the areas most in need of attention by the new director,” Locke said.
A biography for Mr. Godici may be found at the USPTO website here.
JW Note: Mr. Godici will speaking at the upcoming 2nd Annual Quad City IP Symposium titled “Pushing the Envelope on IP Reform”. The event will be held at the University of Dayton School of Law in Dayton, Ohio, on July 17, 2009. Registration information for the event may be found here.
Michael Jackson, King of Pop and Patentee.
Per Dave McClaughry’s post at his new music industry-related patent blog, the recently deceased Michael Jackson was listed as a co-inventor on U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,452, titled “Method and Means for Creating Anti-Gravity Illusion”. As stated in the post, Jackson’s patent “expired before he did, for failure to pay the 3rd maintenance fee”. There is also a nice video at the post of the invention being used in a music video for his song “Smooth Criminal”.
Jackson’s patent was previously featured in our “They Invented What?” series of posts here (TIW? No. 92).
They Invented What? (No. 143)
U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,459: Excrement receptacle device for animals.
I claim:
1. An excrement receptacle device for an animal comprising: a harness for support of the device on an animal, a hollow conduit tube having forward and rearward portions and constructed of a material which provides a normal self-sustaining shape for said tube in which an open tubular passageway is formed in the tube extending from the said forward to the said rearward portion of the tube, means on said harness for supporting said conduit tube in a fixed operative position in which the said forward portion of the tube is adjacent the anal region of the animal and entirely below the tail thereof, a flexible container, means attaching the flexible container to the conduit tube such that the flexible container extends from the said rearward portion of the tube and is in communication with the interior of the tube, said conduit tube including an upper portion made of flexible resilient material for yieldably collapsing when contacted by the animal’s tail and resuming its original normal shape when the animal’s tail is raised in the act of defecating to provide said open passageway in the tube to the container.
They Invented What? (No. 142)
U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,607: Scented doll with the appearance of an aged person.
What is claimed is:
1. A doll comprising: a permeable body covering, wherein said permeable body covering includes a torso portion, a pair of arm portions, a pair of leg portions, and wherein said permeable body covering is sewn to form a closed structure; an internal structure within said closed structure of said permeable body covering emitting a perfume fragrance through said permeable body covering; and a head portion including a core and a flexible cover stretched over said core, wherein said flexible cover includes a lower portion stretched and gathered together to form a narrowed neck attached to said torso portion, and wherein said flexible cover includes external folds emulating an appearance of an aged person including folds formed within said lower portion of said flexible cover.
David J. Kappos, Nominee for Director of the USPTO.
Per this White House press release today.
President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:
David J. Kappos, Nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Mr. Kappos is Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property Law, for IBM Corporation. Based in Armonk, New York, Mr. Kappos directs IBM’s Intellectual Property Law function, providing legal counsel over all facets of protecting and licensing IBM’s intellectual property assets and leading IBM’s engagement of intellectual property law policy issues. In particular, Mr. Kappos is responsible for the management of IBM’s patent and trademark portfolios; protecting and licensing intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks, knowhow and technology) worldwide; directing intellectual property law operations relating to the research, services, consulting, computer systems, storage products, semiconductor and technology development, software, marketing and other groups, divisions, and entities within IBM. In addition, Mr. Kappos has responsibility for IP policy and coordination with IBM’s litigation and corporate development groups in matters relating to intellectual property. Mr. Kappos serves on the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, and the International Intellectual Property Society. He is also the Vice President of the Intellectual Property Owners Association. He has held various previous leadership positions in intellectual property law associations in Asia and the U.S. He has spoken widely in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. on intellectual property topics. Mr. Kappos received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California Davis in 1983, and his law degree from the University of California Berkeley in 1990. He joined IBM in 1983 as a Development Engineer and has served as an Intellectual Property Law attorney in IBM’s Storage Division and Litigation group, as IP Law Counsel in IBM Software Group, as Assistant General Counsel in IBM Asia/Pacific, IBM Corporate Counsel and as Assistant General Counsel prior to his current position.
Review: Burning the Ships: Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft.
Burning the Ships, by Marshall Phelps and David Kline, provides a unique, behind-the-scenes insight into the decisions behind Microsoft’s internal evolution in intellectual property policy. The reasons provided for the demise of the non-assertion of patents or “NAP” clause, for example, is particularly interesting.
Phelps joined Microsoft after many years at IBM, where he orchestrated their highly successful licensing program. At Microsoft, he overcame significant internal resistance and succeeded in causing Microsoft to collaborate with other companies.
Of particular interest to those interested in building a corporate IP program are the objectives set forth in Phelp’s “5-year plan”, namely:
1. Build an outward-facing IP and licensing culture within the company;
2. Play a leading role in the global IP debates;
3. Develop closer coordination between the IP group and the technical development teams in the business units to help guide innovation strategy;
4. Better protect technologies by becoming a top-10 patentee;
5. Maximize the utilization of IP assets to support the companies business goals, standards efforts, and relations with open source and other firms; and
6. Use licensing revenue and cost optimization to fund IP&L’s expanded efforts.
As a negative, the authors’ perspective is certainly (understandably?) biased toward Microsoft. There is also a lot of name-dropping throughout the book, and a certain amount of unnecessary repetition. Overall, however, we enjoyed the book and would recommend it to our readers.
New USPTO Web Site (Beta).
The USPTO has announced the beta test release of its new web site. According to the USPTO, the new site has been redesigned to improve the look and feel, as well as to enhance the user experience with improved navigation. The USPTO’s goal is to make the Web site technologically up-to-date, user-friendly, and responsive to customer feedback.
The beta version of the new USPTO website is available here. Any thoughts from our readers?
The Top 50 Patent Blogs.
We are pleased to announce that the Anticipate This!™ | Patent and Trademark Law Blog (AT!) has been ranked in the top-20 patent blogs of the Internet.
The admittedly non-scientific survey was conducted by Gene Quinn at IPWatchdog, and took into consideration objective links and traffic data, and the results of a poll administered at his website.
JW Note: Many thanks to Gene for the good work he put into this survey, and to our readers who kindly cast votes in our favor!