BPAI Judges Get Patent Attorney Clerks

About two weeks ago I received an anonymous letter from “A concerned observer” regarding the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI).  I realize that anonymous tips can be dubious, but the more I write about the Patent Office the more anonymous tips I get, and the more anonymous comments are made to various posts.  Some of the comments and tips are easy to dismiss, and others seem to have unique knowledge about how things work within the Patent Office and beg to be followed up.  This particular letter I received was one of those that begged to be investigated because I was not aware that the Patent Office had been hiring patent attorneys to function as clerks for the Judges on the Board, and many of my top sources were also either unaware or only vaguely familiar with the program.  What follows is a detailed description of the patent attorney program and my thoughts on the program.

First, the BPAI does have a patent attorney program, and they have, in fact, have had it for several years. The program is designed to provide assistance to the BPAI judges so they can increase the amount of work that they do, while still maintaining a high level of quality. This program was started at least in part to get ready for implementation of the Final Rules on claims and continuations, which have famously been held up by a challenge from GSK and Dr. Tafas.  When the final rules became implemented the Patent Office anticipated that there would be a greater number of appeals, and that it would be necessary to prepare a plan of action to allow the BPAI to handle a larger number of appeals.  While most outside the Office did not know about the program it does not appear as if there was any attempt to keep the program secret, and it does seem to be a responsible step on the part of the Patent Office.

The patent attorney program is modeled after the clerkship program at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, although the number of clerks for the BPAI is far less than the number of clerks available for the Judges on the Federal Circuit.  For example, a judge at the Federal Circuit may have up to 4 clerks, while the 83 judges at the BPAI share a total of only 30 patent attorney clerks.  The Patent Office does want to hire more patent attorney clerks, but the current budget crisis has put a hold on such hiring plans. Patent attorneys selected for the patent attorney clerkship program may come from the patent corps, or from outside the Patent Office.  If selected from the patent bar, the attorney must be registered to practice according to the rules set forth by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline.

One of the things that the anonymous letter suggested was a big concern was the fact that Judges on the BPAI will significantly have their workload increased, and in order to accommodate this increased workload the Judges on the Board may defer to their patent attorney clerks.  On this point the letter states:

An APJ assigned a patent attorney must still author at least 75 opinions outside of the cases assigned to his or her patent attorney to meet a minimum acceptable performance level.  And then that APJ must also review an additional 65 to 100 cases researched, reported, and drafted by the patent attorney.  So now that APJ, who, prior to the patent attorney program, would have been researching, reviewing and authoring 100 cases and opinions and joining in 200 other opinions authored by other APJs, is purportedly carefully reviewing or back-checking 140 to 175 case files, and authoring or reviewing for accuracy 140 to 175 opinions, in addition to the 280 to 350 opinions of other APJs that must be reviewed and signed per year…   In summary, the same APJ who had previously been involved with 300 cases per year will now be involved with 420 to 525 cases per year.

There is a lot of data here, and I frankly do not know what is correct, incorrect or potentially exaggerated.  What does seem clear to me is that whoever wrote this letter has a lot of information about the particulars involved.  I am fully aware of the old saying “figures lie and liars figure,” but I do think this bears watching to see what develops moving forward.  From what I have been told the number of appeals already filed in FY 2009 is equal to the number of appeals filed in FY 2008, and we are only half way through FY 2009.  So it seems that even without the implementation of the claims and continuations rules appeals are growing at an alarming rate, which is not surprising given the low allowance rate and despair among applicants and the patent bar.

I have also been informed that all the BPAI judges have recently received training on opinion writing.  The hope of the Office is that a standardized format is designed to make sure all issues are addressed in an efficient and expedient manner.  Further, while the patent attorney clerk does discuss each case with the assigned Judge on the Board, the Judges have been directed provide the clerk specific direction to draft the decision within the guidelines given by the Judge, which seems in keeping with the role played by judicial clerks in other courts, including at the CAFC.  Once a draft opinion has been completed it would go to the panel for a decision to be made, so the patent attorney clerks will not have decision making authority.  While some Judges on the Board may wish to defer to the patent attorney clerk, it is important to note that the BPAI has its own Peer Quality Review program in effect whereby the Judges rate other judges on their quality. Thus BPAI Judges who rely on their patent attorney clerks will be putting their performance at risk since it is the Judge who is to be held accountable for the position taken and the draft opinion presented to the other panel members.  The question does remain whether the growing workload will cause Judges to increasingly defer to their patent attorney clerks.  I suspect it is far to early to tell, but this bears watching.

In discussing the patent attorney program with some former PTO Officials, retired examiners and retired members of the BPAI, the one thing that came up over and over again was that this program seems to be sound and workable, but the one thing that perhaps should be changed is that the Judges on the BPAI should be able to select their own patent attorney clerk rather having a clerk assigned to them.  The assignment of clerks without input is quite different than the CAFC model, and the model followed by the United States District Courts and other Courts I am familiar with.  It was suggested to me that if a Judge is being asked to increase output and necessarily rely on a clerk to at least some extent, the Judge should have the ability to select someone they feel comfortable working with and relying upon.  It was put point blank to me by one former PTO employee: “It would be easier for me to do the work myself rather than rely on someone I don’t completely trust.”  I think this is a valid criticism and something the USPTO should take into consideration if and when additional patent attorneys can be hired for the Board.

Another former PTO Official told me via e-mail:

I am not surprised, and would not expect to be surprised, to hear that the patent attorney program has some problems, but I would not come to any quick judgments that the program is not, on the whole, working out essentially as it has been designed, namely, to increase overall output (productivity) while keeping the quality and consistency level high.

I would agree with these assessments.  It seems to me that the patent attorney clerk program is a very good idea.  It is in keeping with Patent Office attempts to create a high quality, uniform, judicial review of applications.  With any new program there will be bumps and hurdles along the way, and improvements that can and should be made.  It is to early to tell whether this program will work as designed, but we do need to stay mindful of quality and do not want to overwork good Judges on the BPAI.  We also do not want to transfer the backlog from the examiner docket to the BPAI docket because those cases that are taken up on appeal are disproportionately the ones related to commercially relevant innovations.

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16 comments so far.

  • [Avatar for Lisa]
    Lisa
    January 18, 2010 04:49 pm

    The USPTO and the BPAI are only hiring from within to fill the BPAI law clerk positions. The October 2009 BPAI organizational chart lists 27 Patent Attorneys. My sources have said that ~90% of the law clerks are internal hires from the Examiner corps. You can also check linkedin, avvo, patens.com, Patent Bar registration, patentbuddy.com, martindale, etc. None of their names are showing employment outside of the PTO. Seems like these Examiners have law degrees but could not get hired on the outside.

    What is the point of having an advanced position to support the judges if all of the clerks are inexperienced? Where are the law clerks learning legal writing skills?

    http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/bpai/index.jsp

  • [Avatar for JD]
    JD
    May 4, 2009 09:52 am

    Chaho,

    Hal Wegner of Foley & Lardner has commented/written on the number/ratio of appeal judges/examiners in the context of the JPO and the USPTO. You may want to try to google such information.

    Good luck,

    JD

  • [Avatar for Chaho Jung]
    Chaho Jung
    May 2, 2009 10:16 am

    Gene & JD
    Thanks for your information on the number of ad. judges in the BPAI.
    For your reference, Korea BPA has similar number of ad. judges, even though the number of patent applications in KIPO is much less (half? or 1/3?) than that of the USPTO. I am seeking the reasons thereof.
    Chaho.

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    May 1, 2009 11:05 am

    Curious-

    I have not heard about that, and frankly this would surprise me. I know some folks formerly on the BPAI, and it seems typical that they have examining experience and experience as a SPE, so I don’t know why there would be a need to help the Board understand the examination process.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for JD]
    JD
    April 30, 2009 10:08 am

    Chaho,

    The following organization chart for the BPAI may be useful. I don’t think it is 100% up to date, but it is mostly accurate from what I can tell.

    http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/bpai/docs/bpai_org_04012009.pdf

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    April 30, 2009 10:06 am

    Chaho-

    I would really like to help you here, but I am not sure it is appropriate for me to drop names on this one. I get a lot of information from folks both inside and outside of the PTO, and one of the reasons I get such information is because I do not divulge names unless the statements were made in a public forum or I have explicit permission from the source. I think the way journalists would attribute this type of information is by saying “an unnamed high ranking USPTO Official explained that…”

    I hope this helps.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for Curious]
    Curious
    April 30, 2009 09:26 am

    Gene,
    Thanks for this information. I was surprised to hear several years ago (maybe at a PTO-BCP presentation?) that the PTO had somebody “on detail” to the BPAI who was a SPE or similar. I can’t remember exactly how it was said, but I got the impression that this person was supposed to be “educating” the judges as to how they should be considering various issues–almost like a lobbyist. Now, several years later, the BPAI appears to have changed course and seems to have a much higher affirmance rate. I wonder if the two things are connected, or how things actually work at the BPAI. It certainly doesn’t seem to operate as an independent check on the Office, as it seems to have been intended.

  • [Avatar for Chaho Jung]
    Chaho Jung
    April 30, 2009 02:21 am

    Gene, you wrote:
    “For example, a judge at the Federal Circuit may have up to 4 clerks, while the 83 judges at the BPAI share a total of only 30 patent attorney clerks.”

    Can I get the source or citation of the information (83 & 30)? I need it to write my paper which compares BPAI with the Korean Board of Patent Appeals.

    Thanks in advance. Chaho.

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    April 28, 2009 08:51 pm

    ODP-

    Your comments are disingenuous and do not deserve a response.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    April 28, 2009 08:45 pm

    6-

    I think the jury is out on whether we should be bothered. This may be the first time we really agree on something. You are, obviously, correct that an attorney is not an APJ, and it is important for the APJs to maintain control and I think have hiring and firing ability over any clerk that works for them. What is set up is not really different than any other court though. Attorneys right out of law school are hired by judges, the key is what do they do? If it should get to a point where the attorneys decisions are just ratified that is extremely problematic. There is perhaps some anecdotal evidence to suggest that because affirmance of patent examiners seems to be getting more and more common. Is that because of a rubber stamp? Is that because of being overworked? Is it because of over reliance on patent clerks? I don’t know.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for ODP]
    ODP
    April 28, 2009 07:01 pm

    Gene, how can it be news if it’s two years old, and if it is newsworthy, why sit on it for two years? It’s not dissimilar to NBC’s rerun strategy: If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you. Tomorrow, the PTO announces Claims and Continuations Rules.

  • [Avatar for 6]
    6
    April 28, 2009 05:22 pm

    “I can assure you this is “news” to many patent attorneys and applicants.”

    Technically it probably is, but we’d been posting about it on PO like a year ago, or more. It seems to me like it should bother people more than it does. An attorney isn’t an APJ. An APJ reviewed attorney isn’t an APJ. The other thing that is disturbing was the reports that there were many young attorneys being signed up for it. How can you compare a beginner attorney to an APJ in terms of examination experience? You can’t.

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    April 28, 2009 04:42 pm

    ODP-

    Actually, the BPAI patent clerk program has been running for two years. I did not say it was a new program, but it is indeed “news.” To say something is not news because some within the Office knew about it is disingenuous. I can assure you this is “news” to many patent attorneys and applicants.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for ODP]
    ODP
    April 28, 2009 04:18 pm

    Gene! This is not ‘news’ bc it is not new. There have been patent attorney clerks assigned to BPAI judges for well over a year.

  • [Avatar for Gene Quinn]
    Gene Quinn
    April 28, 2009 04:16 pm

    JNG-

    I am well aware of that trend. I would hope that a program like this could be beneficial and stop summary affirmance of patent examiners. I am also not naive though and have my eyes wide open. The real trouble as I see it is that given the historic problems at the USPTO the fixes require more people and more work, but the PTO’s declining budget is in the way. Even with thoughtful reforms we are going to be running head long into the reality that there is a mess and human tendency (and perhaps PTO mandate) is to churn work and get it off your desk. That doesn’t benefit anyone.

    With all the money we are spending on companies that will ultimately go bankrupt anyway, doubling the PTO budget and hiring capable people who can implement real reform and produce at high levels to get through the backlog are paramount.

    -Gene

  • [Avatar for JNG]
    JNG
    April 28, 2009 04:09 pm

    “It is in keeping with Patent Office attempts to create a high quality, uniform, judicial review of applications.”

    If by uniform you mean we’ll start getting more and more canned, cookie-cutter and superficial analysis than I agree with you. In case you haven’t been keeping track, the BPAI is rubber stamping Examiner rejections at an increasing rate as it is apparent they have no time to actually review the merits of cases.