US Patent Office Opposes Open Source

Courtesy of Adina Levin's weblog BookBlog:

US Patent Office Opposes Open Source:

"Prof. Lessig reports the breathtakingly clue-deprived opinions of the USPTO on open source software.

The patent office was trying to pull the plug on a WIPO meeting that had open source on the agenda. Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is quoted as saying saying: “open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual-property rights... To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.”

Good discussion in the comments to Lessig's blog.

I wonder what the points of leverage are for USPTO accountability. When nearly 2 million people protested the FCC's policy on media consolidation, the FCC blithely ignored the protest -- but Congress advanced bills to overturn the FCC policy. Who's listening on IP policy?"