Who should see Patent Absurdity in 2010

THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER USED. IT WAS WRITTEN IN MAY 2010 AND IS NOT UP TO DATE.

Newcomers: we're making a list of names and address of 200 people we should post a copy of Patent Absurdity to.

Remember, we're looking for their work address, please don't post anyone's home address here.

Names

Patent Office

David Kappos

• Info: the newly appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO

Corporate policy

Microsoft

Steve Ballmer

• info: CEO, Microsoft Corporation

Brad Smith

• info: Microsoft General Counsel and Senior Vice President

Bill Hilf

• info: Microsoft's "open source" person

Novell

Bruce Lowry

• Note: not 100% sure he still works for Novell, but he's the only name we have
• info: the contact person for Novell's patent policy statement during the EU software patents directive, circa. 2004

IBM

Steve Mills

• info: Senior VP of IBM Software Group

Time Warner

James Chiddix

• Note: not 100% sure he still works for Novell, but he's the only name we have
• info: his name is on their anti-swpat letter in 1994: http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/software_patent_timewarner.htm

Apple

Current CEO

• As of January 2014 it's Tim Cook

Salesforce.com

Marc Benioff

• info: CEO of Salesforce (recently sued by MS for swpats)

Other

Dr. Gary Michelson

• info: "billionaire inventor" (very pro-patent but anti-troll) [1]

Jim Greenwood

• info: not sure if he's relevant to the IT sector) former Congressman and current President & CEO of BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization) a lobby for biotech companies.

Academia

Professor John Duffy

• info: of George Washington University Law School

Doug Lichtman

• info: law professor at UCLA, who does podcast IPColloquim. Here's the interview.

Robert P. Merges

• info: teaches at UCal, Berkeley (more info)

Eugene Volokh

• blog: Volokh Conspiracy, teaches at UCLA School of Law. (contact info)

Orin S. Kerr

• info: about) teaches at George Washington University Law School? He specializes in criminal law, but he knows a lot of folks... clerked previously for a Supreme Court justice

Randy Barnett

• info: teaches and is a specialist in Constitutional law, like the media.

Prof. Eric Goldman

• info: contact) Associate Professor of Law at Santa Clara U. School of Law, where he directs the High Tech Law Institute. (blogger)

Susan Crawford

• info: "an Obama influence. Also, she has a very long list of other lawyers on her blog. "

Om Malik

• info: contact), of the blog GigaOm

Journalists

BBC

Jeremy Paxman

• info: Newsnight, BBC Broadcasting Centre, Wood Lane, London?

Pallab Ghosh

• info: covered a genes patent story in 2010[2]

Glen Beck

• info: a groklaw contributor says he's he is seeking out waste... and software patents are a huge waste

Stephen Colbert

• info of the Colbert Report

Jon Stewart

• info: of the Daily Show ("He does love to explore absurditie")

Rachael Maddow

• info: The Rachael Maddow Show on MSNBC ("always includes geek related stuff")

Louis Foreman

• info: executive producer of Everyday Edisons

The New Yorker

Jeffrey Toobin

• info: [3]

Mike Drummond

(see next line - is that it?)

• info: of Inventor's Digest, interview "They are in NC, and their web site lists only a PO Box: Post Office Box 36761 Charlotte NC 28236 but for advertisers they list a street address"

Amy Goodman

• of Democracy Now

Glenn Greenwald

• of Salon.com

Legal bloggers

(Plenty of other legal bloggers are in the Academia section)

Joe Mullin

• info: of the Prior Art. contact

Tony Mauro

• info: of BLT and Law.com.

Lyle Denniston

• info: of SCOTUSblog.

Gene Quinn

• info: of IPwatchdog. He is a pro-software patent patent lawyer but has engaged in the discussion with anti-swpat people.

Trade groups and standards orgs

IEEE-USA

Richard H. Stern

• info: is author of the Micro Law column of IEEE Micro. See his webpage.

Keith D. Grzelak

• info: is chair of the IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Committee which wrote their pro-swpat Bilski brief.

Judges

IMPORTANT NOTE: Is it ok to lobby judges outside of the usual amicus brief method??

Judge Randall Rader

• Info: The new chief judge at the Ct. of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He handled the IP Innovation v. Red Hat patent infringement case.
• Interview.

Adam Eltoukhy

• law clerk of Randall Radar

Joss Nichols

• law clerk of Randall Radar

Roozbeh Gorgin

• intern of Randall Radar

Jennifer Volk

• intern of Randall Radar

Politics

Senate Judiciary Committee

• http://judiciary.senate.gov/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_the_Judiciary

The membership is[4]:

Democrats:

Senate subcommittee: Communications, Technology, and the Internet

In the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation there's a subcommittee that looks relevant: Communications, Technology, and the Internet

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=CommunicationsTechnologyandtheInternet

Senate committee on small business and entrepreneurship

(For these people to see the relevance, a cover letter might be necessary.)

• Membership: http://sbc.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=CommitteeMembers
• Jurisdiction: http://sbc.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Jurisdiction

President Obama's Administration

Elena Kagan, US solicitor General and nominee to the Supreme Court (Kagan also wrote the Government's brief in Bilski)

Question: Her name is on it along with about dozen others, but did she write it? Actually, that whole list of people is probably worthwhile.

Elena Kagan

• Solicitor General, Counsel of Record

Cameron F. Kerry

• General Counsel

Malcolm L. Stewart

• Deputy Solicitor General

Quentin A. Palfrey

• Associate General Counsel

Tony West

• Assistant Attorney General

Joan Bernott Maginnis

• Assistant General Counsel, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 20230

Ginger D. Anders

• Assistant to the Solicitor General

Scott R. Mcintosh

• Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530-0001, (202) 514-2217

Mark R. Freeman

• Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530-0001, (202) 514-2217

Raymond T. Chen

• Solicitor and Deputy General Counsel

Thomas W. Krause

• Associate Solicitor, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA 22313

Scott C. Weidenfeller

• Associate Solicitor, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA 22313

Department of Commerce

Gary Locke

• info: Groklaw comment: "He's at the top of the Commerce food chain and a good guy. Others under him, such as the head of the PTO, have to listen to Gary."

House committee on the judiciary

• 40 members: http://judiciary.house.gov/about/members.html

Patent matters are dealt with by the whole committee, not a subcommittee.

Conyers Jr.

• website: http://www.house.gov/conyers/
• (D) Michigan, 14th
• Chair

Berman

• website: http://www.house.gov/berman/
• (D) California, 28th

Boucher

• website: http://www.boucher.house.gov/
• (D) Virginia, 9th

Nadler

• website: http://www.house.gov/nadler/
• (D) New York, 8th

Scott

• website: http://www.house.gov/scott/
• (D) Virginia, 3rd

Watt

• website: http://watt.house.gov/
• (D) North Carolina, 12th

Lofgren

• website: http://lofgren.house.gov/
• (D) California, 16th

Jackson Lee

• website: http://jacksonlee.house.gov/
• (D) Texas, 18th

Waters

• website: http://www.house.gov/waters/
• (D) California, 35th

Delahunt

• website: http://www.house.gov/delahunt/
• (D) Massachusetts, 10th

Cohen

• website: http://cohen.house.gov/
• (D) Tennessee, 9th

Johnson

• website: http://hankjohnson.house.gov/
• (D) Georgia, 4th

Pierluisi

• website: http://pierluisi.house.gov/
• (D) Puerto Rico, Resident Commissioner

Quigley

• website: http://quigley.house.gov/
• (D) Illinois, 5th

Chu

• website: http://chu.house.gov/
• (D) California, 32nd

Deutch

• website: http://deutch.house.gov/
• (D) Florida, 19th

Gutierrez

• website: http://luisgutierrez.house.gov/
• (D) Illinois, 4th

Baldwin

• website: http://tammybaldwin.house.gov/
• (D) Wisconsin, 2nd

Gonzalez

• website: http://www.gonzalez.house.gov/
• (D) Texas, 20th

Weiner

• website: http://www.house.gov/weiner/
• (D) New York, 9th

Schiff

• website: http://schiff.house.gov/HoR/ca29/
• (D) California, 29th

Sánchez

• website: http://lindasanchez.house.gov/
• (D) California, 39th

Maffei

• website: http://maffei.house.gov/
• (D) New York, 25th

Polis

• website: http://polis.house.gov/
• (D) Colorado, 2nd

Smith

• website: http://lamarsmith.house.gov/
• (R) Texas, 21st
• Ranking member

Sensenbrenner Jr.

• website: http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/
• (R) Wisconsin, 5th

Coble

• website: http://coble.house.gov/
• (R) North Carolina, 6th

Gallegly

• website: http://www.house.gov/gallegly/
• (R) California, 24th

Goodlatte

• website: http://www.house.gov/goodlatte/
• (R) Virginia, 6th

Lungren

• website: http://lungren.house.gov/
• (R) California, 3rd

Issa

• website: http://issa.house.gov/
• (R) California, 49th

Forbes

• website: http://www.house.gov/forbes/
• (R) Virginia, 4th

King

• website: http://www.house.gov/steveking/
• (R) Iowa, 5th

Franks

• website: http://www.house.gov/franks/
• (R) Arizona, 2nd

Gohmert

• website: http://gohmert.house.gov/
• (R) Texas, 1st

Jordan

• website: http://jordan.house.gov/
• (R) Ohio, 4th

Poe

• website: http://poe.house.gov/
• (R) Texas, 2nd

Chaffetz

• website: http://chaffetz.house.gov/
• (R) Utah, 3rd

Rooney

• website: http://rooney.house.gov/
• (R) Florida, 16th

Harper

• website: http://harper.house.gov/
• (R) Mississippi, 3rd

House: Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet

• Subcommittee page
• 35 members
• Jurisdiction: they just have one sentence "Interstate and foreign telecommunications including, but not limited to all telecommunication and information transmission by broadcast, radio, wire, microwave, satellite, or other mode."[5]

Joint Economic Committee

For the economy, there's a joint committee of 10 House members and 10 Senate members.

According to its background page, "Its main purpose is to make a continuing study of matters relating to the US economy." - so it might be worth searching first to see if they get involved in patent cases.

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair

• website:http://www.maloney.house.gov/
• info: New York

Congressman Maurice Hinchey

• website:http://www.house.gov/hinchey/
• info: New York

Congressman Baron Hill

• website:http://baronhill.house.gov/
• info: Indiana

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez

• website:http://www.lorettasanchez.house.gov/
• info: California

Congressman Elijah Cummings

• website:http://cummings.house.gov/
• info: Maryland

Congressman Vic Snyder

• website:http://www.house.gov/snyder/
• info: Arkansas

Congressman Kevin Brady, Ranking Republican

• website:http://www.house.gov/brady/
• info: Texas

Congressman Ron Paul

• website:http://www.house.gov/paul
• info: Texas

Congressman Michael Burgess

• website:http://burgess.house.gov/
• info: Texas

Congressman John Campbell

• website:http://campbell.house.gov/
• info: California

Senator Charles Schumer, Vice Chairman

• website: http://schumer.senate.gov/
• info: New York

Senator Jeff Bingaman

• website: http://bingaman.senate.gov/
• info: New Mexico

Senator Amy Klobuchar

• website: http://klobuchar.senate.gov/
• info: Minnesota

Senator Robert Casey

• website: http://casey.senate.gov/
• info: Pennsylvania

Senator Jim Webb

• website: http://webb.senate.gov/
• info: Virginia

Senator Mark Warner

• website: http://warner.senate.gov/public/
• info: Virginia

Senator Sam Brownback, Ranking Senate Republican

• website: http://brownback.senate.gov/
• info: Kansas

Senator Jim DeMint

• website: http://demint.senate.gov/public/
• info: South Carolina

Senator James E. Risch

• website: http://risch.senate.gov/public/
• info: Idaho

Senator Robert Bennett

• website: http://bennett.senate.gov/public
• info: Utah

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Data from which Ciaran is still extracting names

The following is data that could be useful, but the info provided isn't detailed enough to suggest a person to whom we could send the video. Further precisions very welcome.

Politics

In the US Congress, the relevant committee is the "Senate Judiciary Committee". There used to be a "Patents" subcommittee (in 1950) but that doesn't seem to exist any more. The The Patent Reform Act (USA) is discussed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, so if legislation is proposed after Bilski, it's very likely to come to that committee, making it the most important of the committees listed on this page.

Individual names

• Harry Teague

U.S. Representative for the 2nd District of New Mexico 200 E. Broadway Suite 200 Hobbs, NM 88240 (explanation of why)

• Ben Ray Lujan (is on the House Committee on Science and Technology)

U.S. Representative for the 3rd District of New Mexico 811 St. Michael's Dr. Suite 104 Santa Fe, NM 87505 (explanation of why)

• Tom Udall (on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation)

House Energy and Commerce Committee

(Not 100% sure if this committee is relevant. If we've too many names, maybe this can be cut)

• Henry A. Waxman, D-CA, Chairman
• Joe Barton, R-TX Ranking member

Probably not getting done

Patent Office

• Others: http://www.uspto.gov/about/bios/index.jsp

Corporate policy

• Oracle
  • need a name
• All the 3g/4g phone makers that are currently getting slapped?
  • phone patent litigation
  • http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/an-explosion-of-mobile-patent-lawsuits/

Academia

• One source: who submitted Bilski v. Kappos amicus briefs?
• Might be good to target academic types that defended an "all patents are good" line - they might have only been thinking in terms of pharma and manufacturing, their implied support of software patents might have just been due to the need to simplify their message
• This blog aggregates posts by various legal professors, often on patent issues: http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/intellectual_property/

Journalists

We need names for these

Who in each house might cover the Bilski decision?

• Wall Street Journal
• Financial Times
• Associated Press
• CBS (especially the people in charge of finding stories for "60 Minutes")
• NBC (for Dateline)
• ABC (for "20/20" and potentially "Nightline" or "The View").
• ZDNet
• Wall Street Journal
• New York Times
• Washington Post
• Chicago Sun
• Los Angeles Times

Trade groups and standards orgs

• ACM
  • need someone's name
• APS?
• AMS?
• SIAM?

Possible sources of other names

• The patents bloggers of prawfsblawg
• (This has already been completely mined for names: Groklaw: Who Should See the Film 'Patent Absurdity'?)

Is this person relevant?

Please add information about how these people are connected specifically to patent policy or software policy.

• Craig Venter. (suggested on Groklaw with comment: While I applaud his work the idea that copying can somehow be patentable is quite frightening.)
• Sandra Day O'Connor (suggested on Groklaw with comment: much respected jurist)
• Diane Rehm (suggested on Groklaw with comment: acclaimed journalist with a large audience, unafraid to ask questions. Tries to present a balanced picture of issues.)
• Oprah Winfrey - groklaw commenter says she "<might> give positive publicity" - does she ever talk about patent policy??
• David Letterman (I'm sceptical)