[Ip-health] Information Week: Obama Unveils Tech Policy Plans

[Sarah Rimmington]

Here is an article - it mentions plans for patent reform.  In the next
email I'll attach the plan itself and some other good info.

Candidate Obama Unveils Tech Policy Plans
By K.C. Jones, Information Week
Nov. 12, 2007
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=203100216

<snip>
Obama promised to give the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office resources to
improve patent quality and open the application process to citizen
review. He proposed having the USPTO offer applicants "who know they
have significant inventions the option of a rigorous and public peer
review that would produce a "gold-plated" patent much less vulnerable to
court challenge."

Obama's stance on intellectual property is a bit more vague. He said he
will foster more cooperation on international standards that allow U.S.
technologies to compete globally, while supporting copyright reform and
civic discourse at home.
<snip>


The detailed plan calls for diverse media ownership, patent reform,
safeguards for privacy rights, and protecting children while preserving
the First Amendment, among other positions.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama unveiled a nine-page
technology policy plan Wednesday.

In his comprehensive technology and innovation plan(PDF), the Democratic
candidate strongly supports network neutrality.

The plan says that Obama supports diverse media ownership, patent
reform, safeguards for privacy rights, protecting children while
preserving the First Amendment, and using technology for a more open and
effective government, as well as a more competitive nation.

Obama said he will support expansion and improvements to communications
and IT infrastructure, protection of intellectual property, and make R&D
tax credits permanent. The plan said Obama doesn't think network
providers should be allowed to charge fees to improve delivery of
content or applications.

"Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to
attach personal devices," Obama said in the plan, released by his
campaign. "They have a right to receive accurate and honest information
about service plans. But these guarantees aren't enough to prevent
network providers from discriminating in ways that limit the freedom of
expression on the Internet."

Obama promised to encourage improvements to voluntary ratings,
exploiting new technologies such as tagging and filtering, with Common
Sense Media as a model for its "sanity, not censorship" approach. He
said he will encourage industry to avoid airing adult ads with
children's programming.

The Obama technology plan says that advanced computing power, decreased
storage costs, and huge flows of information create risk as well as
benefits. It promises to create privacy protections and harness the
power of technology to hold government and business accountable for
violations of personal privacy.

Obama supports updating surveillance laws and restrictions on how
information may be used, as well as technology solutions to track and
verify how the information actually has been used. He said he will
increase protection of e-health records and location data, while
boosting funds for tracking down and punishing distributors of spam,
spyware, phishing scams, and telemarketing intrusions.

Obama promised to give the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office resources to
improve patent quality and open the application process to citizen
review. He proposed having the USPTO offer applicants "who know they
have significant inventions the option of a rigorous and public peer
review that would produce a "gold-plated" patent much less vulnerable to
court challenge."

Obama's stance on intellectual property is a bit more vague. He said he
will foster more cooperation on international standards that allow U.S.
technologies to compete globally, while supporting copyright reform and
civic discourse at home.

The wide-ranging plan covers a host of other political issues as well,
saying Obama will support the use of technology to improve health care,
protect the environment, and ensure competition through changes to
immigration, promotion of U.S. businesses abroad, and increased
investments in the fields of science and technology.




--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/