The Barack Obama Administration is – even more than any of its predecessors – the Crony Socialism Administration.
No prior presidency has used and abused government to do more for its friends – and more to its friends’ competitors – than has this one.
When Private Companies Beg for Government Favors – It’s Crony Socialism
Crony Socialism: When Private Sector Losers Turn to Big Government
Solyndra, General Motors and Wall Street: Obama Crony Socialism on Parade
Green Scam: 80% of Green Energy Loans Went to Obama Donors
General Motors: Another Crony Socialist Welfare Office
‘Most Transparent Ever?’ Behold the FCC’s Secret, Crony Socialist Meetings
More Crony Socialism from the Obama Administration?
The default answer to that last question is “But of course.”
Almost certainly the Administration’s Best Crony – is Google.
Currently in Power – The Google Administration
Barack Obama and Google – Crony Socialism on Steroids
All of which begs (at least) a couple of questions. Why would Congressional Republicans want to thus emulate this Administration – and does Google really need even more Big Government assistance?
Some Elephants bizarrely seem to think the answer to the latter is – “But of course.”
Google Public Policy Blog: Patent Reform Needed More Than Ever
Google Leverages Patent Reform for Crony Ends
Patent Reform Bill Is The Law According To Google
Can anything be called “reform” – if it’s creating even more Big Government Cronyism? For one of the biggest Cronies going?
Congress has yet another way to build in even more Cronyism for even more Cronies – the legislative amendment process. Thankfully, there are some objecting.
CBM Amendment To The Innovation Act Defeated In House Judiciary Committee
(O)nce again Cong. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced an amendment to extend the (Covered Business Method) CBM program, which is set to expire in 2020….
The (American Banking Association) ABA Banking Journal described the defeated amendment as an “ABA-supported amendment to extend the Covered Business Method program….“
The committee defeated Issa‘s amendment by a 18 to 13 vote….
There should be as many objections as there are Crony amendments.
Pharma Pushing IPR Carve-Out in House
The drug industry is circulating a sign-on letter to build support for exempting drugs from a streamlined patent challenge process….
A companion bill in the Senate, the PATENT Act, doesn‘t include the carve-out either, but key senators have pledged to continue working with the industry before that legislation advances to the floor for a vote.
“Key Senators” should pledge to not do any such thing.
We’ve had a lot of warped impositions of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment “equal protection” clause. Creating different law for different patent types would be yet another – and should be avoided like the plague.
Thankfully, Congressman Bob Goodlatte recently said at a hearing that he didn’t want to turn his Innovation Act into a Crony carve-out fest. Excellent on him.
But the Congressman’s bill is too big, too far-reaching – too much government. If the bill is too much government for some – hence their requests for exemptions – it is too much government…period.
See: ObamaCare.
ObamaCare and Crony Capitalism: Is Washington Engineering an Insurance Industry Bailout?
Obama Exempts Unions From ObamaCare Fee
Pelosi’s District Gets 20% of Latest ObamaCare Waivers
ObamaCare Has Become ‘Crony Care’ for Pals
ObamaCare’s Crony Capitalism: Worse than We Thought
The solution is – Less Government. A patent reform bill that is thus actual reform.
Fortunately – there are already two.
This is not fundamental transformation. It specifically reforms demand letter abuse – without total system disruption.
It gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the authority to deal with bad demand letter writers – on an a la carte basis. The FTC examines each case as it comes – rather then preemptive, all-encompassing legislation where every single patent holder trying to protect their intellectual property is assumed to be acting in bad faith.
And that‘s about it. With DC – less is almost always more….
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This isn‘t fundamental transformation either. It reforms demand letter abuse – and cleans up some previous DC mistakes.
The last patent reform bill – the America Invents Act – established overly broad standards for when and how patents can be challenged at the patent office. This bill tightens them.
And it uses the TROL Act language that ends abusive demand letters.
A lot of time and effort can be saved by not trying to amend a bad, too-much-government bill – and instead going with a ready-to-go, less government, equal-protection, Cronyism-free good one.
It would be an incredibly refreshing change of D.C. pace.
[Originally published at Red State]
Seton Motley is the president of Less Government, a DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the power of government and protecting the First Amendment from governmental assault.
