PCTGR Blog

The US Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement today released a Federal Register Notice seeking a wide range of input for the  Congressionally-mandated “National IP Strategy” the Office will release this Spring:

http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/PDFgate.cgi?WAISdocID=943473168333+1+2+0&WAISaction=retrieve

There is a lot to the Notice:

Overall, the Notice asks for input on 2 fronts to facilitate the development of the National Strategy:

1)                 Information on the economic, public health and safety threats created by IP infringement. 

2)                 Specific requests for “significantly improving the US Government’s enforcement efforts” in several key areas ranging from reducing duplication, to working with other countries and better engaging industry. 

Contact PCT for more insight or help preparing a formal submission. 

The Athena alliance has released a great new study that picks up on the Obama Administration's recent report on the steps necessary to strengthen US manufacturing.  The Adminstration cited a number of important themes and recommended expanding programs such as the Manufacturing Extension Program.  The Athena report: http://www.athenaalliance.org/pdf/ICandManufacturingFramework.pdf takes it a step further and cites the crucial role that intangible assets like patents, proprietary knowledge, specialized software and IT tools will play in sectors the US must command like nanotech, biotech and clean tech.

Our good friend John Stubbs, Executive Director of the Global Innovation Forum recently hosted a fascinating discussion on clean tech with Thomas Friedman:

http://globalinnovationforum.net/Global-Innovation-Forum-Events/cleantechinnovation.html