PROFESSOR PETITIONS PTO TO ABOLISH SILLY COMPUTER SCIENCE RULE

To sit for the patent bar, for someone whose academic background is in computer science, you need a bachelors degree in computer science from a school accredited either by the CSAB's CSAC or the ABET's CAC - two boards that accredit computer science programs. The problem is that most of the leading computer science departments, often part of engineering schools, are accredited differently. In 2006, Prof. Thomas Field of the Franklin Pierce Law School petitioned the PTO to modify this requirement, arguing that it unfairly restricted many worthy candidates from applying for the patent bar. In May 2006, PTO lawyer Toupin responded with a rejection of the petition, ignoring all of the legitimate merits of the argument, and instead pretty much arguing that Field didn't dot his "i"s and cross his "t"s. Now Toupin could have remembered that he is a public servant, instead of an anal weenie, and wrote back and said "While your petition is defective, we agree the Rule is unduly restrictive, and have changed it accordingly".