The United States Patent and Trademark Office today announced the deadline extension of its Project Exchange through December 31, 2011. The Federal Register Notice announcing the extension refers to Project Exchange as the “Patent Application Backlog Reduction Stimulus Plan,” which I find rather amusing. I guess the official name for Project Exchange came into being before we were all so Stimulus Plan weary.
OK, enough. Project Exchange is far too important to applicants who qualify to make fun about it given the unfortunate official name. Under Project Exchange, any applicant with more than one application filed prior to October 1, 2009, that is currently pending at the USPTO, can receive expedited review of one application in exchange for the withdrawal of an unexamined application, thereby speeding up consideration and the time it takes to get a patent issued.
This past Sunday there was a brief but very interesting segment on Fox New Sunday that actually discussed the plight of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and how the enormous backlog of inventions in the queue at the USPTO is preventing organic job growth at a time when our economy desperately needs job creation. Sitting in for Chris Wallace was Brett Baier. He was interviewing Mark Zandi, who is Chief Economist for Moody’s Analytics, and Liz Claman, an anchor on the Fox Business News channel. The topic for this 11:54 second segment was the health of the U.S. economy and what can and should be done by our leaders in Washington, DC. Surprisingly, at least to me, Claman brought up the USPTO as an ideal opportunity for “instant stimulus.”
David Kappos told CBS the biggest problem is the backlog and the PTO needs more money. "It's no taxpayer dollars at all-- all the fees we collect come from patent applicants."
Straight from the “it’s about time” department comes breaking word that the so-called popular press are finally identifying the most under reported news story of this recession. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is foundering and it needs more money in order to do its job. That alone ought to be newsworthy, but add the fact that the Patent Office is the one agency of government with the ability to recognize assets out of whole cloth and have industry organically grow as a direct result and without ANY taxpayer dollars. The fact that the Patent Office can without any taxpayer dollars directly influence and creation of new, high paying jobs makes it virtually criminal that the elite press, who has reported on virtually every angle of this recession, has ignored the engine that could get us out of this mess.
On July 9, 2010, I interviewed the recently retired Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Honorable Paul Michel. Judge Michel and I talked on the record for 1 hour and 40 minutes at the University Club in Washington, DC, where he is a member. This is Part 2 of a 4 part series. In Part 1, On the Record Interview with Chief Judge Paul Michel, Part 1, we discussed judicial ethics and how cloistered members of the federal judiciary are, his role in investigating President Nixon in Watergate and his role as lead prosecutor investigating many Members of Congress in the Koreagate investigation, among other things.
In this installment we start out talking about Judge Michel’s work for Senator Arlen Specter and how today there seems to be a slow and steady decline in the checks and balances intended to be a part of the federal system. This lead us into talking about the Founding Fathers and how they viewed intellectual property, and patents in particular, as critically important. We discussed how the Patent Office used to be held in such esteem by the Founding Fathers and many generations, and how that seems to be a relic of the past. We also discussed how Judge Michel would like to become “public nuisance #1″ and a trouble-maker as he attempts to proselytize for the patent system and a more responsible federal government.
It is that time of the year when everyone has made or is making resolutions for the new year, most of which will undoubtedly be broken within a few days or weeks, particularly those promises to lose weight, exercise more or find more time for unwinding and better managing stress. All are things I hope to do in the new year, but it will be so much easier to lose weight once football season is over, and exercising will be easier when it is a little warmer outside and the days are longer. On top of that, after taking time off for the holidays how can anyone really manage stress when you come back from the holidays to a pile of work? Oh well… I might as well take this opportunity to set forth my Patent Wishes for 2010 instead of engage in resolutions sure to be broken.
Last year I provided 5 wishes, 2 of which came true — Obama appointing a Patent Attorney and the withdraw of the claims and continuations rules. The Patent Office also adopted several suggestions I made throughout the year, or they came up with the same ideas on their own, who knows? Whatever the case may be, I am hoping that this year I will get at least a few of my wishes granted, but at least some require Congressional cooperation, so I am not going to do anything silly like hold my breath, although I am sure some would like that! All I can do is give good ideas and hope folks in the right places are listening, which I suspect they are.
Without further ado, here are my patent wishes for 2010:
Repeal KSR v. Teleflex
Adequate Funding for the Patent and Trademark Office
Reform Inequitable Conduct
Do away with Examination Support Documents
Acceleration for Those Without Multiple Applications
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has been out in front on patent and intellectual property issues for years, and he is at it once again. Senator Hatch has recently been very active with respect to writing op-ed articles explaining what all of us in the patent community have known for a very long time. My hope is that his profile will bring attention to what is obvious — “If we are to have a durable economic recovery, we must rely on our renowned American ingenuity to lead us into prosperity again.” These words were written by Senator Hatch in an op-ed published by TheHill.com earlier this week. I have been beating this drum for many months now, and with Senator Hatch beating the drum hopefully the rest of America, and in particular the Congress and White House, will pay attention.
Because the U.S. is at the frontier of modern technological and scientific advances, sustaining economic growth depends substantially on our ability to advance that frontier.
Orszag is, of course, correct. Unfortunately, without meaningful and near immediate reform at the Patent Office little can be expected to be accomplished that will chart the course for the growth necessary to bring us out of this economic morass. If we are going to have any hope of pulling out of this economic nose dive as we have after so many recessions of the past, the Patent Office must develop new and better work-flow management techniques, and patent applicants must be treated equally and fairly. A patent system that grants speedy action within a few months to some, and which denies action for up to 10 years to others, is not only unconstitutional, but appears to be unprincipled to the point where we must hit the reset button. This will, of course, require additional resources and a new, bold approach that is modeled after the private sector.
Yesterday I posted an article titled Innovation Held Hostage by the Patent Office. In the article I detailed some troubling things I have learned regarding what appears to be best explained by patent examiners taking cases out of order. The Patent Office is a first-in-first-out (FIFO) system, or at least it is supposed to be. A couple patent attorneys have reported to me that they have received First Office Actions on the Merits anywhere from 4 to 6 months after filing, and one attorney pointed me to a business method patent application filed by Lehman Brothers on November 26, 2006, which issued as a patent less than 7 months later on June 5, 2007. All of this is extremely troubling, and one person who commented suggested that the reason this was happening was because money was changing hands. I do not believe that to be the case.
How to Write a Patent Application is a must own for patent attorneys, patent agents and law students alike. A crucial hands-on resource that walks you through every aspect of preparing and filing a patent application, from working with an inventor to patent searches, preparing the patent application, drafting claims and more. The treatise is continuously updated to address relevant Federal Circuit and Supreme Court decision impacting patent drafting.
It is that time of the year when everyone has made or is making resolutions for the new year, most of which will undoubtedly be broken within a few days or weeks, particularly those promises to lose weight, exercise more or find more time for unwinding and better managing stress. All are things I hope to do in the new year, but it will be so much easier to lose weight once football season is over, and exercising will be easier when it is a little warmer outside and the days are longer. On top of that, after taking time off for the holidays how can anyone really manage stress when you come back from the holidays to a pile of work? Oh well… I might as well take this opportunity to set forth my Patent Wishes for 2010 instead of engage in resolutions sure to be broken.
Yesterday I posted an article titled 
