Lee staying on as patent chief under Trump administration

"President-elect Donald Trump has decided to keep former Google executive Michelle Lee on as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, who informed tech industry organizations gathered in Washington Thursday for a breakfast event...

Lee, who served a dozen years as patent counsel at Google, has been seen in her years in office as walking a careful line between the two patent camps — choosing to focus less on policy than on process upgrades aimed at improving the quality of patents issued by the office.

"I hope that Director Lee expands her focus from just patent quality and lends her expertise and authority to help fix the very real problem that the U.S. has lost its "gold standard" patent system — it no longer promises stable, effective property rights to innovators," said Adam Mosoff, a law professor and co-founder of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason University."

Friday, November 25, 2016

China breaks patent application record; BBC News, 11/24/16

Leo Kelion, BBC News; China breaks patent application record:

"One patent expert - who asked not to be named - suggested the disparity between Chinese inventors' local and international filings reflected the fact that not all the claims would stand up to scrutiny elsewhere.
"The detail of what they are applying for means they would be unlikely to have the necessary degree of novelty to be granted a patent worldwide," he said.
But Wipo's chief economist said things were not so clear cut.
"There is clearly a discussion out there as to what is the quality of Chinese patents," said Carsten Fink.
"But questions have also been asked about US and other [countries'] patents.
"And one should keep in mind that China is a huge economy.
"If you look at its patent filings per head of population, there are still fewer patents being filed there than in the United States.""