Today, over fifty startups, entrepreneurs, innovation support organizations, and investors from across the country joined in a letter to the incoming Director of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), Kathi Vidal, urging her to engage with the needs and experiences of startups and small business innovators. The letter expresses optimism that Ms. Vidal can “restore the PTO’s focus on balance and patent quality and foster a system in which the entire startup ecosystem can access the full scope of the Office’s work.” And it encourages her to focus on charting a path towards more diverse and inclusive innovation and help curb abuse of the patent system.
The signatories explain how “[t]he PTO must balance the interests of all stakeholders—and that includes prospective patent owners and applicants from all backgrounds as well as entrepreneurs and small businesses who only interact with the patent system when they are accused of infringing a low-quality patent. Whether we have applied for a patent before, whether we ever apply for a patent, whether we have registered one or a dozen trademarks—and regardless of whether we have interacted with the PTO directly—what the Office does impacts us, and our voices matter.”
You can read the full letter here.
