US*MADE Congratulates Kathi Vidal on Her Confirmation as USPTO Director, Calls for Improvement in Patent Quality and Restoration of AIA Protections for U.S. Manufacturers
Washington, DC - (NewMediaWire) - April 06, 2022 - The U.S. Manufacturers Association for Development and Enterprise (US*MADE) – a coalition of manufacturers and American manufacturing trade associations focused on protecting job-creators from abusive patent litigation – issued the following statement in response to the Senate confirmation of Kathi Vidal for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director:
“US*MADE congratulates Kathi Vidal on her confirmation to become Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property following her confirmation by the U.S. Senate,” said Beau Phillips, US*MADE executive director. “With a Senate-confirmed Director now in place, the critical work of improving patent quality and restoring the America Invents Act’s protections for US manufacturers can more quickly advance.”
Phillips added, “Patent troll lawsuits rose again in 2021, with more than half of all patent lawsuits targeting U.S. manufacturers who are creating American jobs, adding to U.S. GDP, and helping to drive the economy. These trolls were emboldened when the USPTO unilaterally implemented the NHK-Fintiv rule, which protects poor-quality patents by giving the Patent Trial and Appeal Board undue power to issue discretionary denials of requests for reviews of patents that likely should have never been granted.
“American manufacturers are counting on Ms. Vidal to curb abusive patent litigation and disarm patent trolls by ensuring legal access to the post-grant review process,” Phillips continued. “The American manufacturing companies and trade associations that make up US*MADE hope to be able to work with Ms. Vidal to improve the U.S. patent system for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
For more information about patent quality, inter partes review (IPR), abusive patent litigation, and the threat to U.S. manufacturers, visit https://us-made.org/.
About US*MADE
The U.S. Manufacturers Association for Development and Enterprise (US*MADE) is specifically focused on preserving and protecting inter partes review, improving patent quality, and protecting American manufacturers from abusive patent litigation. Manufacturers are frequent targets of patent litigation by shell companies that produce no products or services. These job creators are shaken down for hefty royalty payments by plaintiffs wielding vague, low-quality patents that likely should have never been issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). To learn more, go to https://us-made.org/.
For more information, contact:
Lauren DuBois
(917) 573-2485
Lauren@US-MADE.org