Unpaid Extern Positions

In case anyone reading this weblog knows a young person who would be interested in an (unpaid, alas) position as an Extern at the Patent Office, such positions exist. It may actually be good experience for someone interested in becoming a patent attorney or examiner.

35 USC 101 and Medieval Troubadours

Application 14/666,134 has now issued as U.S. Patent 10,311,499, so my Office Actions, the patent attorney’s amendments and remarks, and other documents are now matters of public record, and the story can be told.

First, a little about 35 United States Code 101, as interpreted by the courts and the Patent Office. DISCLAIMER: I am not speaking for the Patent Office, I am not representing myself as an authority on patent law and procedure, and what I say here should not be relied upon in prosecuting patent applications or making other patent-related legal or business decisions. That said, 101 limits what can be patented in business methods: for example, if the applicant claims a method of doing business, or otherwise organizing human activity, and says, in effect, “Have a computer apply it,” the claim may be rejected under 35 USC 101 — or maybe not, if the applicant can argue and amend the claim so that it qualifies as a computer-dependent solution to a problem specifically arising in using a network of computers. That’s one example; there can be other grounds.

Anyway, I had an interview (by telephone) with the patent attorney, who had sent me an agenda prior to the actual interview. Afterward, I wrote an Interview Summary, describing our discussion. I will now quote the last sentence of my Interview Summary, which got some laughs when I recommended it to friends of mine at the Patent Office:

Although the Agenda stated, “we would like to discuss the examiner’s assertion that the claims correlate to a ‘medieval troubadour [that] might have attempted to determine the current state of a lord’s mood, and to provide customized entertainment content accordingly’”, Ms. Patterson did not bring the matter up, so Examiner Rosen did not mention what he had read about “contrefait”, the practice of singing new lyrics to a tune, so that a minstrel performing before a devout audience might turn a bawdy ballad into a song of praise for the Blessed Virgin.

You must admit that the habits of medieval troubadours and fine points of modern patent law make an unusual combination.