The IP Industry’s Most Important Issues

This is a special episode of IPWatchdog Unleashed. We held our annual IPWatchdog LIVE conference at the end of September. This conference brings together the industry’s top thought leaders, news makers and people with different backgrounds who are focused on different niche verticals in the IP community. So, while the conference was ongoing, Eileen McDermott, our editor in chief, asked some of the industry leaders in attendance what they thought was the most important issue facing the intellectual property industry.

Judge Pauline Newman

“Technology and innovation are today the absolute foundation of the nation’s strength and leadership,” said Judge Pauline Newman, Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Newman continued: “The patent system is one of the strongest parts of this system.” She added that “I would examine the entire structure of judiciary and its relationship with the government, especially with the agencies we depend on.” “We need to work towards a stronger, more consistent, more predictable intellectual property system, whether it’s patents, trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets.”

David Kappos

“The most pressing issue is the lack of appreciation of the link between strong and effective intellectual property rights and innovation outcomes,” said David Kappos, former Under Secretary of Commerce for IP and Director of the USPTO during the Obama administration. “Everyone’s for innovation. Everyone knows that innovation is important. It leads to better standards of living, jobs, healthcare outcomes, leadership, and positive national defense outcomes. But when you go that next step and try and talk about what is it that causes innovation, what is it that leads to better innovation outcomes, there’s a very poor appreciation for the fact that the answer is simple.”

Henry Hadad

“I think the most pressing issue surrounding IP policy today is that folks seem to be talking past each other,” said Henry Hadad, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb. “The more empirical data that can be put out by independent actors, the more we can focus on evidence-based policy, because too often I think the data is being put out by folks who have an agenda, and it becomes more like policy-based evidence.”

Judge Paul Michel

“The biggest problem is trust and confidence,” said Judge Paul Michel, retired Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. “So many people have lost confidence in the effectiveness of the patent system because patents are unreliable in terms of validity and are difficult to enforce. Remedies are also meager in terms of damages and inability to obtain injunctions.” That trust has to be restored.” Judge Michel would go on to say that long term he is optimistic, but that over the short term “it’s a disaster.”

Joseph Allen

“In our sector, the biggest issue is the march-in framework that the Biden Administration has put out, which would inappropriately allow people to petition the government if they don’t like the price of a federally funded invention in the marketplace,” said Joe Allen, who is Executive Director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition and was also the recipient of this year’s Paul Michel Award. “It wouldn’t lower prices. I think the White House is now reconsidering the legislation because of the bipartisan opposition. So, if we can just get through the rest of the year without something bad happening, I would be a very happy camper.”

Sherry Knowles

“In our area, we’re facing a really unprecedented encroachment into patent rights caused by what we consider to be an unconstitutional approach to obviousness-type double patenting, which disproportionately affects the pharmaceutical and biotech industry,” said Sherry Knowles, former Chief Patent counsel for GlaxoSmithKline, and the founder of Knowles Intellectual Property Strategies. “I have been holding up the flag saying that there is no authority to support that doctrine.” And it has a draconian effect on pharmaceutical and biotech companies.”

Phil Johnson

“I think the most pressing issue facing the U.S. IP system right now is how to restore the faith that inventors and investors have in especially early-stage inventions,” said Phil Johnson, former Senior Vice President for Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy at Johnson & Johnson, and the recipient of the Pauline Newman Award this year at LIVE. The AIA has had a negative impact on the patent system. This is felt by inventors, startups, small entities and early-stage researchers. And this means that many early-stage ideas are not fundable because the startup companies, the investment capital, the risk capital is not willing to go into supporting these and developing these.”

To hear more from these thought leaders and others, including

Alden Abbott, Matteo Sabattini, Judge Susan Braden, Patrick Kilbride, Hans Sauer, Brian O’Shaughnessy

, Robert Stoll,James Edwards, John White and Wen Xie, listen wherever you get your podcasts (links here) or visit IPWatchdog Unleashed on Buzzsprout.