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Secretary Lutnick Visited
Jun. 4th, 2025 02:46 amThe Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, a prolific inventor with many patents, visited the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Tuesday morning, to give a speech praising innovation and the patent system, and then answer questions. A number of employees were in the auditorium; I attended remotely. In answer to one question, he defended Trump’s tariffs, whether out of sincere belief, or because he needs to say things like that in order to stay in the boss’s good graces. He did have a vision of factories being largely automated, rather than of tens of millions of Americans working on assembly lines, the way they did before America ceased to be great, and became in need of the Mango Mussolini’s work to restore its former greatness.
At the end of the session, the acting Director of the USPTO presented the Secretary with two gifts: a framed copy of his first patent, and a wooden pen made of American white oak, and crafted by Peter MacArtisan from a salvaged “shoe.” Back in 1998, the Patent Office still had “shoes” with paper copies of patents that examiners could consult, although there was an electronic search tool already. Today, we have more advanced electronic search tools, and no shoes. Ms. Stewart, the acting Director, described “Peter MacArtisan” as a former examiner, now on the Board of Appeals. The name was quite familiar to me (I’m not using the man’s real name because I don’t have his permission, and he’s not a public figure like Secretary Lutnick); a few months after I had submitted a job application, he got back to my father, who then called me (I had started my probationary period as a science teacher and dorm parent at a private high school for troubled teenagers) to inform me that I had a better offer, and here I am.
I talked with Mr. MacArtisan on the phone, and then met him; he was a supervisory patent examiner at the time, and then ascended to the Board of Appeals. I didn’t know that he also made wooden pens.
At the end of the session, the acting Director of the USPTO presented the Secretary with two gifts: a framed copy of his first patent, and a wooden pen made of American white oak, and crafted by Peter MacArtisan from a salvaged “shoe.” Back in 1998, the Patent Office still had “shoes” with paper copies of patents that examiners could consult, although there was an electronic search tool already. Today, we have more advanced electronic search tools, and no shoes. Ms. Stewart, the acting Director, described “Peter MacArtisan” as a former examiner, now on the Board of Appeals. The name was quite familiar to me (I’m not using the man’s real name because I don’t have his permission, and he’s not a public figure like Secretary Lutnick); a few months after I had submitted a job application, he got back to my father, who then called me (I had started my probationary period as a science teacher and dorm parent at a private high school for troubled teenagers) to inform me that I had a better offer, and here I am.
I talked with Mr. MacArtisan on the phone, and then met him; he was a supervisory patent examiner at the time, and then ascended to the Board of Appeals. I didn’t know that he also made wooden pens.
