Backlog, Quotas Overwhelm Patent Examiners (Bush Crony) WaPo

[LeighAnn]

The article doesn't mention it, but the Chief Administrative Officer over there is a Bush crony named Vickers B. Meadows

http://www.uspto.gov/biographies/bio_meadows.htm

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Here's how bad it is at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

If the agency could shut its doors to catch up on its work, its 5,500 patent examiners would take at least two years to clear the backlog of pending applications. When the agency reopened, there would be more than 1 million new applications piled up on the doorstep.



Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) requested the GAO report on the Patent and Trademark Office. (By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press)

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In the global economy, innovation, technological progress and the protection of intellectual property rights are keys to U.S. competitiveness. Keeping up with the demand for patents is critical to the nation's health.

But the patent office is suffering from troublesome turnover. One patent examiner leaves for nearly every two the agency hires, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress.

About two-thirds of patent examiners surveyed by the GAO said the patent office's production quotas are one of the biggest reasons for quitting. To meet their quotas, 70 percent of examiners surveyed by the GAO said they had to work substantial unpaid overtime in the previous 12 months. Others said they caught up with their work while on vacation.

The production quotas are based on the number of applications that examiners must review and complete biweekly and have not been adjusted since 1976. Since then, patent applications have become more complex, which means it takes longer to review them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100701199.html