Is Trump being bamboozled by Obama holdovers on patent policy?

No doubt, President Trump is under siege. And it is not just the media and the opposing party. He is also being attacked internally by establishment politicians and Obama holdovers within his own administration who are leaking sensitive information and carrying over Obama era policies even against Trump’s own public policy statements.

Whatever Trump says about inventors, IP, trade imbalances, national security and other things, it is confounding that the actions of his administration do not mirror his words. He says one thing, but his administration does another. Is Trump being googled (as in bamboozled) by Obama holdovers? Or is Trump himself the swamp?

Last week, we saw the Trump Administration’s policy perspective on patents in the fiscal year 2018 budget. Fortunately, Trump’s budget lets the USPTO keep the fees it collects. However, comments in the Trump budget conjure up the ghost of Obama policies. To quote the Trump’s FY 2018 budget:

“The Budget supports USPTO’s administrative efforts to address abusive patent litigation practices and repeats the President’s call for Congress to enact legislation that promotes greater transparency in the U.S. patent system and prevents frivolous lawsuits that stifle innovation.”

The Trump White House says the same thing. The problem is that Trump has never said anything like this as a candidate or as President. In fact his statements on the record contradict this policy stance. He clearly calls patents private property just like land protected by the Constitution. He agrees that the theft of IP is elevated to a national security issue. He even said in his first speech to Congress that inventors made America great at the century celebration of America and will do so again when America turns 250.

The first reference I could find of the FY 2018 budget quote above was a March 13, 2014 USPTO Leadership Blog by then USPTO CFO (now acting Deputy Director) Tony Scardino, which was nearly word-for-word identical.

“The budget also supports administrative efforts to address abusive patent litigation practices and repeats the president’s call for Congress to enact legislation that promotes greater transparency in the U.S. patent system and prevents frivolous lawsuits that stifle innovation.”

That same quote later became part of Obama’s 2015 Budget and was carried on exactly the same through the 2017 budget.

“The Budget supports USPTO’s administrative efforts to address abusive patent litigation practices and repeats the President’s call for Congress to enact legislation that promotes greater transparency in the U.S. patent system and prevents frivolous lawsuits that stifle innovation.”

The USPTO’s Obama holdovers Michelle Lee and Tony Scardino are simply co-opting the exact language used in Obama’s budgets for fiscal years 2015 to 2017 into Trump’s 2018 budget and then directly attributing Obama’s policies and statements to President Trump even though Trump has never taken a position on anti-patent legislation.

The 2018 budget is not the only output from Obama holdovers in the Trump Administration carrying over destructive Obama era policies. Just a few weeks ago, the Trump Administration argued in Oil States that patents are not property rights – they are instead some sort of public entitlement, something more akin to food stamps than property rights, that can be given and taken by the administration. I’m pretty sure it is not possible to collateralize public entitlements like food stamps. So if patents are public entitlements, how can they be collateralized to fund early stage startups?

Obama era policies crushed the U.S. patent system. It is now ranked 10^th in the world, tied with Hungary. China, Trump’s primary target of trade equalization and IP theft, saw how Obama’s patent policies were crushing America’s technology and job creation engine and did what is best for China – they created a more stable and predictable patent system, which resulted in a tectonic shift of venture capital, patenting and startups from the U.S. to China.

This shift will quickly become a national security disaster. In just a few short years, we will be purchasing technologies that fuel our infrastructure and military from China. These new technologies will not only be manufactured in China, but they will be invented there too. At that point, we will no longer be the world’s technology leader. China will. And, as a result, we will be forced to comply with the demands of a Communist oligarchy in our financial, foreign, and military policies.

Are these failed Obama era policies now carried over into the Trump Administration by Obama holdovers simply mistakes? Some sort of scrivener’s error? Or is it a direct attempt to carry over failed Obama policies in the name of President Trump? You be the judge. Perhaps you can tell me: Is Trump being googled by Obama holdovers? Or is Trump himself the swamp?