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Comment on Software Patent Abolition Petition

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Petitions are not a good medium for this conversation. The response to the previous petition https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/direct-pate... pointed to the place where the actual discussion is happening, http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faq.jsp and http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/comments.jsp

Agreed. A petition was worthwhile to elevate the attention given to the matter. It could be the response was a brush-off, but it might also be an invitation to the party.

It's pretty hard to overestimate the impact that executive branch policy has on the PTO. If there truly were a "quality-first" directive, with mandates to reject hard-to-understand and overbroad applications on teachability and novelty doctrines, that would have a huge impact on the patent landscape. But there's a ton of work to do in crafting a suggested directive that would accomplish that, and petitions aren't really the proper vehicle for such suggestions.

It might be more productive to interpret the press release as an invitation to work on that document, and the pointer to the AIA page as a forwarding address to take the initiative to the next level.

So: what ought be the content of "Executive Order N to the Patent and Trademark Office?"

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