The US Chamber of Commerce has released a set of recommendations for President Elect Obama in dealing with the USPTO. Some highlights below:
- Comparing the past twenty years:
Year | Budget (Mil) | Patent Examiners | New Apps | Total Backlog | Pendency (Months) |
1988 | $144 | 1,540 | 148,000 | 268,000 | 20 |
1998 | $567 | 2590 | 240,000 | 481,000 | 24 |
2008 | $1,915 | 5,960 | 463,700 | 750,600 | 32 |
- The PTO should use "fee and order of examination incentives" to encourage applicants to provide higher quality applications and information disclosures. Thus, instead of making a hard cut-off for RCE filings, the PTO should consider charging an "increasing fee for successive continuations or RCE filings."
- The PTO should allow oversight and transparency in its quality review process.
- The Second-Pair-of-Eyes Review program "seems to be breeding a negative attitude among examiners and many applicants. The concept of quality review is essential, but the focus needs to change so that poor, unjustified decisions are not made in the alleged interest of quality."
- The next PTO director should have experience in patent prosecution and litigation.
- Deferred Examination: "If the PTO cannot reduce its backlog through other means and the number of patent filings continues to increase, consideration should be given to allowing patent applicants to defer examination of their applications for perhaps up to three years."
- Key contributors to the report include Dana Colarulli (Legislative lead for the IPO); Q Todd Dickinson (former PTO director); Nicholas Godici (former PTO commissioner of patents); Esther Kepplinger (former director of patent operations at the PTO); Mike Kirk (former deputy commissioner of patents); Stephen Kunin (former director of patent examination policy for the PTO); Gerald Mossinghoff (former PTO director); Charles Van Horn; and Herb Wamsley (IPO) .
- Read the Report.
