TheWorx

I felt I had been the victim of discrimination by the Commerce Dept. In filing an FOIA [freedom of Information Act] request, I had asked for a waiver of fee because it was a ridiculous amount and unnecessary due to the fact that I had requested electronic records. The amount quoted was initially nearly $13,000 for 62,876 single-sided pages. The letter which follows is one that I received from their legal department. I feel it is important that people who intend to file for a waiver of FOIA fees know how this administration’s bureaucrats can engage in specious arguments to prevent the dissemination of useful data under the FOIA--data, for instance, that could provide evidence that a government agency engages in discrimination with abandon. However, it should be read so as to obtain instruction into the rules regarding fee waivers. For, let’s face it, data requested by the ordinary citizen can easily be made inaccessible via exorbitant copying fees. I thought I had initially answered th...

The utter idiocy of paying for something which does not protect you in the least and which leaves you having to seek expert witnesses and paying lawyers through your nose to defend your patent is, quite frankly, patently absurd.  Samsung expert witnesses: Sorry, Apple, there's no infringement - CNET The obvious solution is to pay a small fee to have the government verify that you thought of an idea on such and such a date. Then, you would do what you have to do now. You fight patent infringement in court if you think someone is using your patent without paying you. What idiot would want to pay thousands for NOTHING! Let's do away with the patent office as it now exists! I'm so frustrated over this that all I can do is state it again, you have to defend your patent on your own. What the heck does a court care whether some patent examiner granted the patent if it has the power to invalidate it? Oh, so asinine. So, so, asinine!