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."

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Re:Speculation, Not News

[Anonymous Coward]

It takes years to get a patent out of the USPTO, so filing an application now won't make a lick of difference unless the shutdown lasts well past the next election. Plus, the FTC and the DOJ have never had any involvement with getting patents from the USPTO. Only the DoD does (because the DoD can issue secrecy orders that keep a patent application a secret.)

Re:PJ? We need you!

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad Pamela closed her site.

Too bad the NSA shit the bed for so many people, their businesses and our country's reputation.

Re:PJ? We need you!

[bloodhawk]

Why would this generate a story, it is just a garbage article. Patents aren't reviewed and granted in days or even weeks, you would be considered to have been kissed on the prick if it was done in months instead of years. filing while the government is shutdown won't make the slightest bit of difference unless you expect this shutdown to run for years and in which case I think patent trolls will be the least of your worries.

Washington Monument Syndrome

[Dialecticus]

This is just an example of Washington Monument Syndrome [wikipedia.org], wherein the government (or a branch of it), when faced with budget cuts, first shuts down whatever site or service will cause the most uproar. Never mind the graft, never mind the mountains of wasteful spending, just cut funding to fire departments, schools, police, whatever will get noticed and inspire outrage the fastest. The idea is to apply pressure to the taxpayers, the budget office, the ways and means committee, or whoever else is capable of deciding that they should get more money. They do this every single time.

It's exactly the same as a petulant child who, upon being told that he can only have two pieces of candy instead of five, holds his breath and stomps his feet in an effort to reverse the decision. And it's equally mature.

Re:terrorists and traitors

[tbannist]

Actually, the vast majority of House seats are assigned to the individual parties (via gerrymandering) and "elected" by party loyalists during the primaries. The People don't get much of a vote in Congress (Between 3% and 5% of congressional seats are considered "competitive"). Interestingly enough, in this house the Democratic candidates got about 1.7 million more votes that the Republican candidates but have 33 fewer seats than the Republicans [wikipedia.org]. So in a very real sense, the People should not be held responsible for Congress, because they didn't get what they voted for.