Sharing Irah Donner engaging article offering a potential, provocative solution to the problems inventors face at the USPTO.
These paragraphs caught my eye:
"The Patent Office’s existing modus operandi is to examine every patent application—even if the invention is not likely to contribute to society—with no way to prioritize its resources to focus on inventions that are important and may contribute to society."
"Today, Patent Office resources are not prioritized, and therefore the Patent Office expends a significant amount of its resources on patent applications/inventions that never contribute to or benefit society."
The problem I see, the USPTO does not examine every patent application with the same modus operandi. Historically, the USPTO has not offered inventors a fair and consistent chance at examination.
Remember from 1993-2015, all those carefully selected SAWS flagged applications that were subject to secret delays, denials and extracurricular scrutiny?
How about the art units where examiners' three year average allowance rates vary from the single digit to 90%-plus for examining the same technological subject matter? Once your inventor's application lands on the 3% allowance rate examiner's desk, it and its continuations and divisional will languish without any chance of transfer to a more pro-innovation examiner. Meanwhile, patent applications docketed to the 95% allowance rate examiner breeze right through to issue.
How about those patent applications filed by watchlisted Chinese entities with claims directed to sanctioned technologies which are prioritized for a light examination and hasty allowance?
Examples:
https://lnkd.in/gsCx3KXk
https://lnkd.in/d7YZWvXk
https://lnkd.in/gjkAHdhQ
It is as if the USPTO is quietly piloting Irah Donner's solution by implementing its own secret patent registration office for the China-filed applications.
The USPTO's latest de facto two-tier exam system - essentially a registration office for Chinese filed applications versus extended examination hurdles for US inventors to jump through - is not contributing to or benefiting America's society, economy, technological competitive edge, deeply ingrained sense of fairness or national security posture.
To be fair, either every inventor should have a right to a quick examination by the 95% allowance rate examiner, or no one should.
#USPTO, #China, #natsec, #OIG, #GAO, #PTAB, #CNIPA, #biden, #sanction, #congress, #watchlist, #tencent, #huawei, #cyber, #IP, #AI, #pentagon, #defense, #military, #uncouple,
