Patently-O’s First-to-File Survey

by Jason Fischer

Not that we want to club anyone to death with stories about first-to-file patent reform, but given that Director Kappos has begun beating the patent reform drum, it’s becoming more important that all the facts are known.  Up to now, there really hasn’t been any consensus on whether moving to a first-to-file priority system would be a drastic change.  Dennis Crouch, over at Patently-O, insists that the Director may be using flawed statistics to demonstrate that change will not be so bad.  Interestingly enough, after Professor Crouch and a few others posted comments about it on Director Kappos’s blog, the comments were closed off, ending the discussion on that forum.  I guess Mr. Kappos is not really interested in hearing from the patent community — despite portraying that he will listen to feedback.

In an effort to come up with some real numbers, Professor Crouch has created a survey that is designed to record the position of patent professionals on this issue.  If you have an opinion, one way or the other, you should take a minute, click over, and take the survey.  You can’t complain later about how things end up, if you didn’t participate in the discussion.

UPDATE:  It looks like Kappos’s blog has let through a few more comments, but they are clearly censoring responses.