IPWatchdog’s Quinn Shadows Kappos for a Day

I know it’s vogue in some circles to diss government as bloated, over-reaching, corrupt and even menacing. But to paint all government workers and leaders with such a broad stroke is to throw the tea out with the tea bag, to mangle a metaphor.

kappos

Which brings me to David Kappos, director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and his crew. The man who helped oversee IBM’s immense IP portfolio inherited a staggering backlog of patents, growing pendency, aging technology and a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.

Then there’s the reflexive criticism he’s taken for nearly every initiative he’s advanced, from fast-tracking certain patents if independent inventors agree to abandon less pressing applications, to seeking control over setting his agency’s own fees,  to sweeping changes contained in the moribund patent-reform legislation.

Given the challenges the USPTO faces and the disparate and endless line of critics who confront him, his situation seems lose-lose. Kappos, meet Kafka.

In my own interview with him, he came off as passionate about innovation with a facile grasp of intellectual property protection’s role in generating economic growth. And unlike the contemptible Charles Rangels and slothful Mike “heckuva job” Browns on the public payroll, Kappos came off as almost frenetic.

So now comes patent attorney Gene Quinn – no liberal lover of government – with a serialized “day in the life” of Kappos and his staff. The first installment appears on his IPWatchdog blog. Kappos is a workaholic who busts ass even on weekends, evidently.

Regardless of where you stand on the role of government, we should all applaud hard work. Kappos, it appears, is earning his money.

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