Programmer Humor

That person was also me, funnily enough!

since this is the copyright office it has no bearing on other types of established property such as license or patent law

Buddy, patents are public domain. That's the whole point of a patent.

As part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor, patents are published into the public domain.

the office admits they are waiting for public input (the legislative body) on the matter

No they don't - they've published their current rules and state that those rules are their interpretation and those rules will stand until and unless further rulings or legislation comes out to change the situation. You know, how laws work?