Secret Sba Hearing On Pto Rules Options

[Vic]

Dear Members,

The below message is an important read. Note the toll-free teleconference
phone number:
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Secret SBA hearing on PTO rules changes - attend and fight This Wednesday,
March 8th, from 1 to 2 PM, the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of
Advocacy, is having a 1 hour hearing on the PTO proposed rules changes. While
the meeting is open to the public, that means little if no one tells the public.
I couldn't find any notice of the meeting on the SBA Web site, or through a
Google search.

There is an announcement - on my Web site: www.bustpatents.com/pto-sba.doc

Since the proposed rules changes are mostly harmful to the small businesses
the SBA is supposed to champion, as many people as possible should attend the
meeting and express their displeasure in an effort to get the SBA to come out
against the proposed rules changes.

The meeting will be held at the main SBA office in Washington, D.C., at 409
Third Street SW, in the Eisenhower conference on the 2nd floor. You can also
call in for a toll-free teleconference by dialing 866-740-1260 using the access
code 3311103.

The SBA has two goals for the meeting:
- obtain data to show how the NPRM, if finalized as written, will impact
small entities

Unfortunately, the announcement for the meeting doesn't explain what "NPRM"
means - maybe "Nutty Patent Reform Machinations". A PATNEWS reader last
night emailed me: "Greg - FYI, NPRM = Notice of Public Rule Making". The
other goal:

- identify regulatory alternatives that would permit the PTO to achieve
its regulatory goals
while minimizing the impact on small entities

Sadly, it is unlikely the SBA actually cares about this latter issue, since
the SBA has never really cared about the problems small and independent
inventors face at the PTO.

The meeting starts at 1PM with a few introductory remarks about the SBA's
Office of Advocacy, made by Charles Maresca, Director, Office of Interagency
Affairs and Carrol Barnes, Assistant Chief Counsel for Advocacy. Good people to
lobby about problems with proposed rules changes.

From 1:15 to 1:50 PM, there will be two speakers. First, will be Jay Lucas,
PTO Deputy Commissioner of Patents, who will laboriously waste time and go
through his PowerPoint slide presentation that most life forms higher than a
slime mold can read quickly to free up more time for questions.

The other speaker is Michael Messinger, director/lawyer at Sterne, Kessler,
Goldstein & Fox, who hopefully will be championing small business interests.

If you are in DC on Wednesday, and can attend the meeting, please do so and
let the SBA how much most real inventors hate these rules changes. If some PTO
examiners can get some time off and attend as well to express examiner
displeasure with the rules changes, that will help too.

Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service