Subcommittee grills PTO director on patent backlog, morale
By late 2007, more than 760,000 applications were waiting to be reviewed; hiring restrictions have left agency understaffed.
House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee members Wednesday grilled Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas about the growing backlog of patent applications and the increasing amount of time it takes overburdened examiners to process those claims.
By late 2007, more than 760,000 applications were waiting to be reviewed and the average time it took to address those filings ranged from 25 months to more than 32 months, Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., said.
A patent's value is tied to the creator's ability to exclude others from using the invention and Berman said the time it takes for examiners to act "cuts into the time the inventor has to make commercial use of the invention."
Dudas painted a rosier picture of the PTO. The 2006 and 2007 fiscal years were record-breakers with respect to patent production and quality; examiner hiring; adoption of telework practices, and electronic application processing, he said.
Over two years, the PTO increased patent production by more than 21 percent and hired 2,400 patent examiners. The agency added 1,000 participants to its telework program and increased e-filing from 2 percent to 70 percent. Attrition among first-year examiners was reduced by as much as 50 percent when retention was tied to recruitment bonuses.
"A healthy PTO is essential [and] we have some reports that may be troubles on the horizon," said Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property ranking member Howard Coble, R-N.C., who said the backlog is a perennial challenge for the office that needs to be fixed.
Veteran examiner and PTO union president Robert Budens said years of inadequate funding and hiring restrictions have left the agency understaffed. Examiners need "the time to do the job right" and the agency's high expectations have left them "angry, stressed out and demoralized," Budens said.
The hearing came six months after House passage of legislation to overhaul the patent system, which included several provisions aimed at making the PTO more efficient. A Senate bill is awaiting floor action.
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., told Dudas the elimination of a number of senior-level PTO posts previously filled by "career professionals who collectively represent hundreds of years of experience" was disturbing and asked for an explanation. Dudas explained that those individuals were not fired but said he was trying to focus the agency on higher performance standards.