Dear Congressman: Please use the Promote the Progress blog as a resource and a communications tool during the legislative process on patent reform

As the audience of this blog knows, I am actively tracking the patent reform movement and will continue to do so as legislation is introduced (likely in the next several weeks), debated, and advanced.  As part of these efforts, I am extending the following Schwimmer-inspired invitation to members of Congress:

I invite any and all Members of Congress that are interested in patent reform and/or in the views of others on the topic to use the Promote the Progress blog as a resource and a communications tool.  I extend this invitation to any and all Congressional staffers interested in this topic as well.

Use the blog as a resource by reading the posts and the comments to the posts.  There’s a lot of relevant material here.  You can focus specifically on the patent reform topic by visiting the category archive here.  If you’re new to the topic, you can start with the patent reform primer.

To take it “to the next level” and begin using the blog as a communications tool, you can leave comments of your own and/or contact me with suggested topics for discussion (I’ll post anything that will foster debate on the topic).  If you have a question about how people feel on any of the issues, ask me.  I’ll post it and allow people to leave comments on the subject.

Why should Congressmen and their staff jump on this invitation?  I think Marty stated it perfectly: 

Legal blogs represent a new type of forum for discussing proposed legislation. It is not a gathering of extremist constituencies, nor is it a ‘town hall’ meeting of the uninformed. It is a good place to get good feedback from an articulate, broad spectrum of voters.

I’ll add this to the rationale:  people from varied backgrounds that are interested in patent reform routinely visit this blog for updates on the topic.  I’ll gladly share the site statistics with anyone that accepts the invitation, but suffice it to say that the Promote the Progress audience represents a wide cross-section of stakeholders (inside patent counsel from small, medium, large and extra-large corporations, private patent practitioners, business people concerned about patent law changes, small and individual inventors, politicians (the blog is visited by the House and Senate nearly every day), representative of the federal court system, and regulators (the blog gets visits from the Patent Office several times a day)).  Tapping this blog as a resource and using it as a tool can only make the product of legislative efforts on patent reform better.

Here’s my end of the bargain.  I’ll continue to provide updates to the community on the topic of patent reform with the hopes of fostering debate.  I’ll encourage comments on all relevant posts, and will consider all topic suggestions received from readers.  I’ll add posts that openly ask for viewpoints on focused topics related to patent reform, and will summarize viewpoints when appropriate.

If anyone has any questions about the blog or this invitation, please contact me by e-mail at:  jmbesq @ gmail.com.