[9184] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
More about 1/94 & 2/94 PTO SOFTWARE-PATENTS HEARINGS
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Warren)
Mon Dec 20 16:07:39 1993
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 12:59:28 -0800
From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.sf.ca.us>
To: nobody@well.sf.ca.us
Cc: CCAPLENER@mcimail.com, TK0JUT2%NIU.BITNET.@jade.berkeley.edu,
Tracked down a bit more on the January and February Patent & Trademark Office
hearings on software patents - so-called, software-related inventions:
Today (12/20), the Federal Register apparently [finally] carries the public
notice of the meetings - reportedly drafted and ready for publication at the
end of November. I am awaiting fax and electronic copies of it and will
post and e-distribute it after I get it.
For your very own original copy however, send email to kushan@uspto.gov and
put the following in the subject-line: fr notice request
(requests an electronic copy of the official Federal Register notice).
The person apparently responsible for organizing the hearings is:
Jeff Kushan [NOT Kushman], Esq.
Legal and International Intellectual Property Specialist
Office of Legislation and International Affairs
U. S. Patent and Trademark Office
voice/703-305-9300; fax/703-305-8885; email/kushan@uspto.gov
He seemed knowledgable, was cordial, appeared frustrated by the delay in
the [required] Federal Register notice publication, and I had the impression
that he and/or the PTO has received more than a little heat and fury over
software-patent problems (though he made no such specific statement).
Reporters and press can contact Ruth Ford in the PTO Public Affairs Office at
703-305-8600 (East Coast time, of course). I am faxing a large list of trade
and lay-press technology reporters to Kushan, as soon as I can dig it out.
[This msg is being BLIND-copied to a number of technology reporters, as well
as a number of others who may be sensitive about their e-addrs being in the
msg header.]
The hearings will be Jan 26-27 (San Jose) and Feb 11-12 (Arlington), before
Patent Commissioner Bruce Lehman, senior PTO staff, some Dept. of Commerce
staff and/or officials, and probably others - specifics still being planned.
Speakers will probably be limited to 7-12 minutes, but will be permitted and
encouraged to submit more extensive written comments, before and for a
limited period of time after the hearings.
Mo' as it Is.
--jim
Jim Warren, 415-851-7075
[Blush & Cringe: My email is *still* horrendously backed up, so voice-call if
ya desire time-sensitive communing.]
== Please copy, post and recirculate, widely. ==
