Backlash against patent office nominee

In my last blog post, I discussed some reasons why the USPTO, and patent reform in general, have difficulty reconciling conflicting interests.

In June, the White House proposed Phil Johnson as the new director of the USPTO, but backed down under pressure from the tech community.  Johnson is the senior vice-president of intellectual property at Johnson&Johnson, the pharmaceutical and consumer goods company.

After news broke out, outrage emerged. Johnson had testified against the recent patent reform bill, which was later killed, writing (on pg. 2):

The innovation ecosystem in the country is extremely sensitive to changes in our patent system. While troll abuse is a problem that should be addressed, it is critical that Congress not do so at the expense of the vast majority of innovation stakeholders for whom the patent system is working. Proposals that deprive patent owners of free access to the courts and/or delay or make less certain the availability of relief from the harms caused them by infringers should be avoided even, if necessary, at the expense of accepting less than a complete solution for troll abuse.

Johnson even opposed portions of the bill that were generally seen as innocuous or uncontroversial, such as requiring patent litigators to file more detailed allegations (as we discussed in class, this is not the case in the Eastern District of Texas) and to be more transparent about the ownership of the patent.

To the tech industry and proponents of patent reform, President Obama's choice  was seen as hypocritical. From a Techdirt story:

...it appears that President Obama is poised to appoint a long-time pharma industry patent-maximalist who has spent years fighting against patent reform, to take over as the director of the USPTO.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, the tech and pharmaceutical industries generally have opposing opinions on patents. Many in the tech industry see patents as an inconvenience, perhaps a lesser evil, while pharmaceuticals depend heavily on patents.

I think it's worth mentioning that the previous director of the USPTO, David Kappos, was from the tech industry. However, during his office, the approval rate for patent applications increased by 20 percent, suggesting that the patent office may have lowered its standards to process the backlog.