Gutierrez, Departement of Commerce

I took part in an International Judges' Congress for Intellectual Property in Washington D.C.

Mr. Gutierrez addressed the meeting of more than 200 very exerienced lawyers in the field.

Seldom, possibly never, have I heard opinions simultaneously naive and terrifying about the business privilegies. As an European I am accustomed with at least lip-service to public weal in promoting useful arts. Nothing of that sort was told. We heard how good it is to promote U.S. Business interest by dircect force or via World Trade Organisation and how even Jordan, after yielding the U.S. to promulgate a patent law already has half a dozen ndew medicins on market. This is remarkable, because Eli Lily and other giants on the branch usually need at least 10 years to advance from filing a patent to get it on market.

I asked. American judges and lawyers were either embarrassed or insulted.

American Patent Law is very industry-friendly and very liberal in its definitions. But the judges and lawyers are real good.

We followed litigations at the Court of Appeal for Federal Circuit. Judge Pauline Newman and others in the panel (Judges Lurie and Rader) were simply terrific.

I found no reason to change my basic views: patents as a system has stopped functioning. One of the reasons is the long delay between filing and receiving a patent. More important reason is the exorbitant cost of patent litigation.

One more problem: many things like computer softwere are protected in law both by copyright and patents. Traditionally these two are handled by different ministeries (departments). Overlapping is costy. Experts are different persons. Waste is extravagant. Both systems long ago become totally incomprehensible for people of good faith, even lawyers not versed in the art.