Open source lawyer in charge of Obama's Patent and Trademark Office

By Cory Doctorow at 7:48 am Monday, Jun 22

James Love from Knowledge Ecology International sez, "This blog gives some quotes from David Kappos, the IBM patent lawyer Obama has picked to head the USPTO. The appointment should warm the hearts of people who have been disappointed in some of Obama's early moves on IP policy."

What's happening at the moment is that IBM's IP lawyers are being aligned along a new philosophical axis. Under the leadership of Palmisano and the direction of Dr John E Kelly III, IBM's senior vice-president for technology and intellectual property, the approach to patent protection is shifting. After years of strenuously protecting all its patents the company is now backing the movement towards open standards. And this is changing everything.

'We are now the biggest supporters of the open source development project,' explains David. 'Admittedly this policy is not easily reconcilable with our traditional IP strategy, but we are convinced that it is the way to go for the future.'

President Obama picks David Kappos as USPTO Director, first open source fan to run USPTO (Thanks, Jamie!)