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US Patent Office's Plan to Address Huge Backlog
The average time that a patent approved in 2009 was under review was 35 months — that’s almost three years. There are currently 750,000 patents in backlog. The long length of time to be approved, frequent complaints that patents are being granted on ideas that are obvious, and complaints about the long waits for patent processing have led some to say that the system is broke. But how to fix it? Everyone agrees that the Patent Office is underfunded and staff examiners are underpaid. And because of that, the Office lacks sufficient expertise across a range of technologies that are complex and rapidly changing. Some of those areas include software, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and genetics.
Without more funding anywhere on the horizon, David Kappos, director of the US Patent Office, has tried to come up with a new idea: a three-track approach to patent applications.
The three tracks towards patent examination are as follows:
- Track I (Prioritized examination): Applicants who pay an additional fee will receive expedited processing, hearing from the patent office within four months, and finding the result of their application within twelve months (approve and reject). The new fee hasn’t been determined yet, but Kappos called the fee ‘non-trivial’.
- Track II (Standard examination): This option is basically the current process with fees that similar to those that are charged today.
- Track III (Deferred examination): Non-continuing applications that originate in the US may have examination deferred for up to 30 months. The examination fee, and possibly also the search fee, may be deferred during this period. This approach may benefit applicants with long product lead times, like pharmaceuticals, by deferring costs and examination for up to 30 months.
“Not every application needs to go at the same speed. Some need to go fast and some need to go more slowly. The system will allow applicants to essentially select which innovations are the most important for patent examiners to tackle first,” Mr. Kappos explained as part of the reasoning behind the proposed change. Similar type expedited processing is used by other federal agencies, such as for the fast-track processing of passports and visas like H1B.
The three-track plan has been proposed and is available for public comment until August 20th. If it goes through, it will probably be put into effect sometime in 2011.
