🚀 go-pugleaf

Thank you to the person who sent me the full text of the Department of
Commerce's Request for Comments on patent law reform.  The deadline
for written comments is very soon, 15 July 1991 (received in Washington
DC by then).

I will e-mail copies of this document to anyone who makes a request.
The Dept. of Commerce will be making a recommendation on legal reforms
to the Secretary of Commerce by August 1992 and wishes to make sure
such "recommendations represent a true consensus of the American public".

Send your comments to:

	E.R. Kazenske, Executive Assistant to the Commissioner
	U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
	P.O. Box 15
	Washington, DC  20231

For more info, call that office at 703-557-3071.  You should try to
specifically address the points contained in the RFC, though I noticed
it didn't ask too many questions about the Look&Feel brouhaha going
on these days.  (My overall opinion is that patent laws are being
unfairly used by large companies to clobber the little guy, and to
suppress innovation.)

Here's an outline of the RFC document:

	I. Protection of Computer Related Inventions
	II. Federal Protection for Trade Secrets
	III. Cost and Complexity of Patent Enforcement
	IV. Grounds for Holding Patents Unenforceable
	V. Licensee Challenges to Patent Validity
	VI. First-to-File System
	VII. Automatic Publication of Applications
	VIII. Patent Term
	IX. Deferred Examination
	X. In re Hilmer [a court case regarding foreign patents]
	XI. Reexamination
	XII. Assignee Filing of Applications
	XIII. PTO [Patent & Trade Office] Funding and Fee Structure

The document number is 56 FR 22702-02.

Please get involved in the setting of public policy.  It affects all of
us.  (Sorry for the little lecture...)

-rich