Five by Five - Doug Sorocco
Up next is Douglas Sorocco, partner in the Oklahoma law firm of Dunlap, Codding & Rogers and author of the PHOSITA blog. Doug's Five Ways he'd change the practice of IP law:
1. Everyone needs to take a deep breath regarding software patents. The end of the world is not near, the seas are not going to be flooding our coastal cities and software patents are not stifling development of new and useful tools and processes. Software developers are simply going to have to become better business people and accept that nothing is free and patent clearance searches must be made an integral part of the development process.
2. Continuation application practice must be reformed to require the update of the "best mode" of practicing the invention every time a new continuation application is filed. A loophole (according to my opinion) in continuation practice is the fact that anyone can file as many continuing applications as they want and never have to update the "best
mode" in the application. If a continuation application is filed several years after the parent application, it is likely that the best mode of practicing the invention is woefully out of date. U.S. patent policy of limited monopoly rights for full disclosure would be better served by updating this crucial piece of information every time a new continuing application is filed.
3. Clients and businesses see the patent lawyer as integral to the business model and growth strategy. Any patent attorney that doesn't request a business plan or meeting with management to discuss the implications of intellectual property filings should be disbarred. Do not pass go. Instantly disbarred and perhaps made to wear a chicken suit as future employment.
4. All law and graduate students should be required to take a general intellectual property overview class as part of their first year curriculum. Our society and economy is quickly becoming knowledge <!--D(["mb","based. Every attorney (and business person) should have at least a\
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5. Significant and substantive reform of the U.S. patent office procedure for patentees, lawyers and patent office employees. The current system is broke and the pressures put on patent employees are absurd. As applications become more complex, Examiners are not being given the appropriate amount of time, training and resources to complete
their jobs efficiently and expertly. Fee diversions must be stopped and quality made the "gold standard" rather than production and counts