US Shutdown Is Good News For Patent Trolls

judgecorp writes "It's just a sidebar on the US government shutdown but, while agencies including NASA and NIST are displaying blank websites, the US Patent and Trademark Office is running as normal because its funding is guaranteed by the US Constitution. Thus, patent trolls can continue to file bogus business patents, while the FTC is closed and can't combat them, and the Department of Justice can't handle appeals and enforcement."

Complete misrepresentation

[Anonymous Coward]

It is sad how bad the editors are at their job. Just a quick glance at the linked article will find the full quote included therein:

The USPTO, for example, is established in the US Constitution, and has its own funding that doesn’t depend on annual Congressional appropriations to the extent that some others do.

But that funding won’t last forever. And if the budget deadlock remains in force for more than a few weeks, the USPTO will cease most operations along with the rest of the Department of Commerce as part of a Shutdown Plan that went into effect in September.

And reading the full quote, we see that the OP completely 1) misread 2) misunderstood what they were being told. Did the OP intentionally misread the article, or was the OP a total idiot? We don't know the answer to that question.

ARTICLE IS A TROLL IMHO

[Anonymous Coward]

Long time slashdot lurker, first post. To disclose my bias: I'm a patent attorney, but I'm also a long time EFF supporter and member. This article is a bit disingenuous or wrong. The Constitution does not guarantee funding to the Patent Office. Instead, at best, Article 1 section 1 clause 8 says that Congress shall have the power to grant limited monopolies to inventors to further the progress of arts and sciences. A patent is only granted to someone who files an application, pays $$$$$ fees, invents something new (never been done before), is not obvious, and teaches the public fully how to make and use the invention. The fees are so much for filing and prosecuting an application that the Patent Office is the ONLY branch of government that is self-sufficient needing no taxpayer moneys and instead they generate such a surplus that the extra cash goes to other branches to help them operate. The quid pro quo from patent filings is awesome for the republic (not withstanding non-practicing entity trolls). We, the people, get $$$$ massive filing, prosecution, and maintenance fees, attorney fees, a full public disclosure of the technology such that once the patent expires (or if it doesn't issue as is often the case, the public is free to use the technology. Therefore, the patent office isn't shut down because it's actually generating revenue and it's accepting new disclosures from around the world. If we shut down then we wouldn't know e.g. Taiwan's latest greatest encryption protocol; China's new nuclear process; Russia's new oil exploration method... Our patent office is NOT the enemy. Far from it. They maintain a fully public accessible website of over 9 MILLION Patents fully text searchable; MILLIONS of published applications that didn't become patents (maybe not new or non-obvious enough or didn't comply with formalities)....MILLIONS of design patents... all free all available for the public - Aaron, may he read in peace, would approve. Our founding fathers realized it was essential for us to be dominant in the innovation and technology field that's why it's in the Constitution. Just wanted to toss my two cents in. IMHO.