USPTO Ends Patent Outsourcing to India
Posted: Tuesday, Jul 29, 2008 @ 10:02 pm | Written by Gene Quinn | 8 comments|
Posted in: IP News, IPWatchdog.com Articles, Patent Fools™, USPTO
On July 23, 2008, the United States Patent & Trademark Office published an interesting notice in the Federal Register. This particular notice announced nothing new in terms of the law, but will have an enormous impact on the way patent services are provided to many corporations and law firms. Specifically, it has finally come to the notice of the Patent Office that outsourcing is going on in the patent area, which is in clear and direct violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Finally, someone has noticed that our export laws prohibit the sending of information relating to technology overseas without a proper license. This should signal an end to the $2.2 billion per year patent outsourcing to India. For admittedly selfish reasons I am happy that export regulations will now be enforced as written. My professional efforts over the last 5 years to create a wholly domestic solution to the rising cost of patent preparation work may pay off in a big way, which will be a significant benefit to the US economy as well.
