Google Tech Talks August 6, 2008 ABSTRACT Many patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") are undeserved. They are granted for several reasons, including that the PTO is not aware of significant prior art (knowledge already in the public domain), that the PTO's employees are not given sufficient time and resources to do an effective screening of patent applications and that the rules regarding how patents are granted are skewed through perverse patent policy to favor the granting of patents. Undeserved patents injure the public because they can be used by private actors to preclude activity that would otherwise be permissible, if not desirable. This causes prices for goods to be artificially high, the advancement of science to be thwarted, and civil liberties to be inappropriately restrained. The Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT") is a not-for-profit legal services organization whose mission is to represent the public interest against the harms caused by errors in the patent system, and particularly the harms caused by undeserved patents and unsound patent policy. PUBPAT provides the general public and specific persons or entities otherwise deprived of access to the system governing patents with representation, advocacy and education. In this Google Tech Talk, PUBPAT's Founder and Executive Director, Mr. Daniel B. Ravicher, will discuss PUBPAT's mission in greater detail and describe the specific activities PUBPAT undertakes to accomplish that mission <b>...</b>
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