After my presentation, as you might expect, I was approached by a number of patent attorneys. Story after story it was the same thing I have heard from so many others — depressing tales of not being able to get a patent. One particularly egregious thing I heard was from a patent attorney who told me about a conversation he recently had with a SPE from one of the business method art units. I don't know which Art Unit, and frankly I didn't ask, although it is probably easy enough to narrow down the Art Unit. This patent attorney told me that the SPE said: "we just don't issue patents unless the Board orders us to." If that is in fact what was said and is in fact what is happening then there is a systematic denial of due process at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and that is wholly unacceptable.
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