{"content":[{"text":"Wednesday, June 9, 2021","bbox":{"left":0.677451,"top":0.094377,"width":0.20098099999999997,"height":0.016779000000000002}},{"text":"Dear President Joe Biden:","bbox":{"left":0.116471,"top":0.15271,"width":0.21947,"height":0.01677899999999999}},{"text":"As organizations focused on science, technology, and access to knowledge, the Internet, and \n medicines, we urge the administration to appoint a Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark \n Office (PTO) who will make evidence-based decisions, demonstrate the highest level of \n integrity, and broaden the base of participation in the patent system. Now more than ever, we \n need a Director committed to science, ethics, and equity, to restore the public’s trust in the PTO \n and its ability to promote progress for the benefit of all.","bbox":{"left":0.116471,"top":0.211195,"width":0.7516100000000001,"height":0.12268799999999999}},{"text":"The PTO is a public agency with a duty to the public. Indeed, the entire patent system is founded \n on a bargain between inventors and the public: To incentivize technological progress, the public \n grants patents—exclusive rights in an invention for a limited period of time—to the inventors of \n new, nonobvious, and useful inventions. In exchange, the inventors must teach the world how to \n make and use the inventions, and, when the patent expires, all can use the inventions freely. \n Ultimately, the goal of the patent system is to encourage the creation and dissemination of \n valuable technologies that benefit the public, and providing incentives to spur invention through \n patents must be considered alongside the public’s interest in access to patented technologies.","bbox":{"left":0.116471,"top":0.356953,"width":0.760196,"height":0.16511199999999998}},{"text":"For the past three years, the PTO was led by a Director who admittedly viewed patent (and \n trademark) applicants as the agency’s primary “customers”—a view that led to disregard for the \n impact of the PTO’s decisions on consumers, workers, public health, and the American public as \n a whole. For example, under the last Director’s leadership, the PTO overstepped its statutory \n authority and dismantled key provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA), including the inter \n partes review system. Congress created that system to help stem the tide of abusive patent \n infringement litigation; the last Director changed the system to encourage it, as the rising \n number of infringement lawsuits shows. Meanwhile, he adopted policies that effectively re- \n wrote patent law, expanding the boundaries of eligibility for patent protection to benefit big \n technology, pharmaceutical, and medical diagnostic companies, but with little or no public input \n and oversight. Throughout this period, the PTO’s sole public advisory committee (the Patent \n Public Advisory Committee or PPAC) included representatives of big corporations, but not a \n single representative of the broader public.","bbox":{"left":0.116471,"top":0.548468,"width":0.760179,"height":0.271173}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}