Painful Processing

Since last October, patent examiners have been struggling to meet rigorous quotas for processing patent applications while relying on a new computer system that takes as long as 45 minutes to perform a search that used to take four seconds, according to Ronald Stern, president of the Patent Office Professional Association. In December, the PTO began offering examiners the chance to come in to work as early as 5:30 a.m. in return for comp time. Patent office managers hoped the new policy would encourage employees to spread out their use of the new system.

"Employees are frustrated out of their minds," Stern said in late December. In a meeting with management after the system was introduced, "one normally very mild-mannered examiner couldn't keep himself from using four-letter words. It really was evidence of the frustration people are feeling."

On Oct. 9, PTO shut down its old Messenger search system, forcing examiners to begin using the Examiner Automated Search Tool (EAST) and the Web-based Examiner Search Tool (WEST). The search tools help examiners determine the viability of patent applications.

The Messenger system was not Y2K-compliant, so it had to be taken offline, says PTO Commissioner Q. Todd Dickinson. "Faced with Y2K, we had a choice to make and it was a difficult choice, but we had to go forward with the implementation" of EAST and WEST, Dickinson says.

Examiners immediately began complaining about the speed of the new systems, the difficult-to-use interfaces and the lack of training PTO had provided to EAST and WEST users. The search system is just one part of the process for evaluating a patent application, but the tough quotas examiners must meet make any decrease in productivity especially frustrating.

Angry employees fired off complaints to Dickinson and to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, calling for an investigation of the problem. Stern says Dickinson has been responsive to examiners' complaints.

Training on the new systems has now been provided to all examiners. And in addition to offering comp time in an effort to spread out the load on the new systems, PTO has acquired a larger server to handle more simultaneous searches. Employees can seek quota reductions if computer delays take up too much of their time.

The agency planned to implement a software fix in mid-January. But in December, many examiners weren't optimistic about whether it would solve the problems. "The people using the system think [managers] are deluding themselves," Stern said.

-Brian Friel