The Red Queen’s Race

This week, I got one amendment on my Amended docket, which was then removed for bureaucratic reasons unrelated to whether the claims should not be patentable. I also got one after final amendment on my Expedited docket, which I dealt with the next day. Finally, I confirmed abandonment of the application on my Special Amended docket, in which the Board of Appeals had affirmed my rejection, so, for the moment, I have no amendments of any kind, and can look backwards at the Red Queen.

I finished my oldest non-RCE Regular New case Monday, and then finished an Office Action on my senior Request for Continued Examination case, I think on Tuesday. I am now in a position to finish writing an Office Action on my other RCE, which should be done by Monday at 3:00 PM, the deadline for the biweek. I have also done some preliminary work on two more Regular New applications.

Encryption, Senate Bill 4051

I will tell my senators that I urge them to oppose Senate Bill 4051, the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, which essentially requires the tech industry to provide the government with backdoor access to people’s tablets, smartphones, and encrypted communications. The reason, officially, is that this will aid law enforcement in tracking the activities of terrorists, child pornographers, and other very bad people.

One problem is that there is no such thing as a backdoor which only the good guys can use. If the FBI can use the required backdoor to access my iPad, then Chinese military intelligence will probably soon find a way to do the same, and so will ordinary crooks who want to obtain my banking and credit card information. Meanwhile, the people whom the government has the most legitimate reasons to surveil will often have the sophistication to avoid having their data viewed. The United States has no monopoly on software engineering, or on the manufacture of electronic devices, and I do not believe that sources of unapproved, backdoorless encryption will be wanting, whether motivated by ideology or by money.

Please write to your senators as well, asking them to oppose LAED, also known as Senate Bill 4051.

Oh, and Attorney General William P. Barr very much supports this bill. Need I say more?