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USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

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Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#31

Post by deathhand »

labster wrote: post #5

I'm vaguely wondering if this is happening now because the tech industry publicly opposed Trump on the Paris Agreement. It's pretty well known that he makes decisions based on loyalty and payback. They probably won't even nominate a replacement for six months at the rate we're going, so expect the status quo for a long while.

I highly doubt that. The patent office has it's own problems as reported to HN.[1] I think the real 'fork in the road' is politics behind the scenes. I haven't read anything about the "MAGA" philosphy on American Innovation but I have heard of cuts to government funded programs like the EPA. So it's either going to get better because someone realized that innovation is they key to success(hopefully..please god...just something) or worse because it's viewed as another bureaucracy and thus cut to save money.

[1](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=patent%20problems&sort=byPopul...)

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#32

Post by wbl »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #24
daxfohl wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And something to do with her resignation. Didn't Obama's cabinet have a ridiculous number of PhD's, and Trump's end up replacing some Nobel laureates with Rick Perry?

Steven Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics 1997) was succeeded by Ernest Moniz (Nuclear Physicist, MIT Professor) who was succeeded by Rick Perry (who forgot which agency he was going to abolish if elected [1]) 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTNjhcyx7dM

George W. Bush didn't always appoint slouches either. Samuel Bodman was a professor at MIT and then went into industry. Spencer Abrahams, the prior officeholder, was a politico.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#33

Post by kevinyen »

mikeyouse wrote: post #16
robotresearcher wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also possible that her degrees from MIT and Stanford and experience as a lawyer at Google had something to do with it.

Her resume is beyond sterling, I literally don't believe you could find someone more qualified. But sure, she got the job because she's a woman. God people are awful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_K._Lee#Education_and_...

I was lucky enough to get to know and work with her a bit, before her appointment. She is an amazing person.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#34

Post by huac »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #24
daxfohl wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And something to do with her resignation. Didn't Obama's cabinet have a ridiculous number of PhD's, and Trump's end up replacing some Nobel laureates with Rick Perry?

Steven Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics 1997) was succeeded by Ernest Moniz (Nuclear Physicist, MIT Professor) who was succeeded by Rick Perry (who forgot which agency he was going to abolish if elected [1]) 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTNjhcyx7dM

These are the last 3 heads of the Department of Energy. Perry is especially hilarious in this context because he intended to abolish the DOE.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#35

Post by imron »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #15
mark_edward wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nah she stole that job from an innocent man, no way a woman could actually be qualified.

It's not necessarily about her being a woman, as much as a Google employee. Obama hired dozens of Google employees to prominent executive branch positions during his term. http://www.googletransparencyproject.org/articles/googles-re...

Please reset your sarcasm filter.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#36

Post by dboreham »

huac wrote: post #34
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steven Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics 1997) was succeeded by Ernest Moniz (Nuclear Physicist, MIT Professor) who was succeeded by Rick Perry (who forgot which agency he was going to abolish if elected [1]) 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTNjhcyx7dM

These are the last 3 heads of the Department of Energy. Perry is especially hilarious in this context because he intended to abolish the DOE.

That wouldn't be so surprising (since the Environment Dept. head wanted to abolish it too, and Betsy Voss I'm sure wants to abolish the Education Dept). The surprising thing is that he believed that the Dept of Energy was to do with regulating the "Energy" aka Oil and Gas industries.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#37

Post by seanmcdirmid »

wbl wrote: post #32
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steven Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics 1997) was succeeded by Ernest Moniz (Nuclear Physicist, MIT Professor) who was succeeded by Rick Perry (who forgot which agency he was going to abolish if elected [1]) 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTNjhcyx7dM

George W. Bush didn't always appoint slouches either. Samuel Bodman was a professor at MIT and then went into industry. Spencer Abrahams, the prior officeholder, was a politico.

DJT is no GWB.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#38

Post by prbuckley »

sigmar wrote: post #25
jaboutboul wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were most likely waiting for the Commerce Secretary to pick and vet a replacement. Lee's demise was a long time coming. Many small businesses and independent inventors absolutely couldn't stand how the USPTO had pretty much turned against them and become a monster.

>They were most likely waiting for the Commerce Secretary to pick and vet a replacement. The first two paragraphs of this article seems to suggest this is not the case. >Many small businesses and independent inventors absolutely couldn't stand how the USPTO had pretty much turned against them and become a monster. Lee is pro patent reform. Small companies and Google like her. Large companies and the Innovation Allian…

As a small business owner inventor, and patent owner I think what the parent is talking about is the PTAB and the Inter Partes Review (IPR) process that is very expensive for a patent owner to defend against and. Lee is seen as someone who could place more limits on IPR's but has not. This directly benefits large companies at the expense of small patent holders.

For example, say you as a small time inventor have a valid patent on some great new widget. Big company X starts selling the widget you invented, you approach them and ask if they would license your patent, Big company X can afford to keep filing IPR's against your patent and it will cost you ~$200,000 each time. Big company X can milk you dry and draw things out for years so it becomes much more difficult as a small business to defend and license your patent. Lee seems to have really helped large tech companies at the expense of small inventors.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#39

Post by dang »

caliagent wrote: post #2

Let's identify why she got the job under Obama: "Lee is the first female director in the USPTO’s history, and one of her priorities is getting more women into STEM jobs." Those two key words are major talking points with his administration. Now what did she say she'd do versus what she actually did that led to this change under the new administration: https://www.fastcompany.com/3047424/how-former-googler-miche... ht…

You've already managed to post numerous ideologically inflammatory comments to HN. That amounts to trolling, and we ban accounts that do this. If you don't want to be banned on HN, please post substantive, thoughtful comments only.

Re: USPTO Director Michelle Lee Resigns

#40

Post by matt4077 »

daxfohl wrote: post #21
mikeyouse wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her resume is beyond sterling, I literally don't believe you could find someone more qualified. But sure, she got the job because she's a woman. God people are awful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_K._Lee#Education_and_...

Please edit and remove the anchor hashtag. The childhood section is even more awesome.

i just love that she build a TV, and then, as in "later", her "interest grew"–when she was 10.
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