Expedited Patent Examination

Here's a great idea:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office chief David Kappos is proposing a new three-track system for patent applications that would allow applicants to pay an undisclosed amount on top of the standard $1,090 filing fee to jump to the front of the line for expedited reviews.

But will everyone do it?  Full article from the Wall Street Journal here. 

Overload at the USPTO

This PC World article reiterates yet again the...lack of quality, shall we say, in some recently granted patents, and the reasons behind it:

The patent office faces a perfect storm: According to USPTO commissioner John Doll, the greatest number of new patent applications are for business processes or computer hardware and software innovations. And the former is one of the most difficult types of patent to evaluate.

"We do not have the ability to examine all the new cases that are being filed, and that's especially true in the high-tech areas," Doll says. The USPTO started 2005 with a backlog of 500,000 new patent applications, and ended the year with a backlog of nearly 600,000.

Examiners are supposed to evaluate applications against "prior art"--similar, earlier inventions. But in areas like software, "it's impossible for everyone to have their hands on every relevant piece of art" in the given time, says Kappos.

The Patent Review Process

Is it flawed?

The USPTO says no.

Patent Chronicles

Patent Chronicles is a great blog focusing on software and business method patents and authored by a prior art searcher. Check it out!

Edited: Authored by a current prior art searcher! My bad.

Top Patent Prosecution Firms

Article and rankings here:

PatentRatings, LLC, a leading patent research and rating service, today released its annual list of the top U.S. patent law firms for 2004. The rankings are based on PatentRatings' proprietary IPQ(TM) patent quality scoring system, which has been proven in blind studies to have statistically significant correlation to patent quality and potential value.

History of the USPTO

Here is an article titled "A History of the United States Patent Office," by Jason O. Watson. In part:

After several revisions and additions, various elements of both Hamilton's and Jefferson's bills resulted in the Patent Act of 1793. This Act formally created a Patent Board, comprised of the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Secretary of War. The responsibility of the issuance of patents belonged to the Department of State (at the time under Jefferson). A patent would be issued if two-thirds of the Patent Board determined the invention as "sufficiently useful and important."11 Oftentimes the various cabinet members were not experts in any specific art or scientific field. Likewise, many were not familiar with science and technology in general (Jefferson, of course, was an exception). These men often had other pressing duties that they were occupied with. As a result, many patents were issued that perhaps should not have been while other worthy patent applications were neglected.

Funny how things change...

So You Wanna Patent Something?

In the same vein as the How Patents Work post below, here is the So You Wanna folks' interpretation of getting a patent:

So You Wanna Patent Something?

Over One Million Served

This article begins by stating that:

Companies around the world have filed-applications for 1 million international patents since the system began in 1978, according to the United Nations agency for intellectual property. U.S. companies lead in the number of applications, filing 205,286 since 2000, said Samar Shamoon, spokeswoman for the World Intellectual Property Organization. Japan is in second place with 72,891, followed by-Germany with 70,513, Britain at 25,916 and France with 24,278.

The WIPO web site provides more information.