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Patent Office Proposes Reform
leabre writes "The NY Times (subscription required) is running a story about how the Patent and trademark office is trying to reform itself. Among some of the reforms sought, is higher fees for the initial processing fee, higher fees for more than 20 claims, higher fees for the more work the examiners have to due (lower fees for less work and fewer claims), 2000 more examiners, and required continued relevance of the examiner in their field (certification and re-certification). My favorite quote "...Mr. Rogan says excessive claims not only slow patent processing but contribute to poor-quality patents." They are trying to crack down on abundant claims and too-technical jargon which they claim overworks the examiners, reduces the quality of the patent, and other things. Worth a read."
So, it'll be run like a dot com? When's the IPO?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Notice how there is no mention of changing the process for "business process" patents, like the Bezos "One-Click" and now infamous "eBay" patents.
Raising the fees only help big corporations, which of course want to patent everything under the Sun, probablly including the Sun, just like BT's frivilous patent on "links".
There needs to be some sort of improvement in prior art review. How come a couple thousand of us /.ers can find prior art, but the USPTO can't even use Google?????
Patents we devised to be accesible to the small guy and were designed to help increase innovation. Now they are used as ways for big corporation to squash people from even thinking, and the DCMA only adds to that.
D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.
The PTO makes no money. It is a government service organization. If you read the article, you'll notice that they are really tied up by the fact that many unwarranted patents are filed every year along with poorly written patent applications.
Speaking from personal experience (both going through to process and having known employees) they are completely overwhelmed by people who are applying for patents for things that already exist, and primarily by poorly written yet overwhelmingly complex patent applicatons.
I don't see how charging according to the amount of effort that they have to put in is going to hinder the process. Most large organizations are going to ultimately be the ones paying the most. If an individual wishes to file for a patent, they hold workshops all the time on how to get through effieciently, and ultimately this will mean that you get to pay the least.
All in all, I think they need some reform, and I really hope this helps. They do provide a good service, when things are working.
--- I'll have a Bloody Mary, a Steak Sandwich and a uh Steak Sandwich.
But he's not going far enough. Simply charging more for more patent filings isn't going to stop the companies that exist to do nothing other than file patents. They'll just factor it into their business models and pass the costs on to licencees.
What the PTO needs to do is to charge punitive fees when they reject patents. Yes, you heard me. Currently, they get their income from granting patents, so there's absolutely no, zero, zilch, nada incentive to reject, and so there's no disincentive to file.
Let's turn that on its head. Patents should be granted grudgingly. Examiners should be looking for excuses to reject them.
I'd quite seriously propose a deposit of $10,000 for each patent filing, most of which would be refundable on granting. I want filers to be sure that they're actually filing genuine inventions, and I want the PTO examiner (and/or subcontractor) to be eyeing that $10,000 as her reward for finding prior art that you've missed or "forgotten" to mention.
If $10,000 looks like a lot, then consider how many genuinely novel inventions you're likely to have during your working life, and compare that to the number of cars you might buy over that same period. If you still think that's too much for basement inventors, then consider that they can always sell their idea to one of the patent swallowing companies, and we can go back to business as usual.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
And exactly how would all this have prevented the sideways swinging patent #6368227? How much expertise and certification to you need to spot the prior art in THAT one?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
The Patent & Trademark Office seems to have spent most of its time over the past decade trying to reform itself. With "customer" satisfaction surveys running in the 50 - 60% range, they know they have a problem.
For example, about a year back, they came out with software for electronic submission. Codes things in XML. Nice concept, but the software was virtually unusable. God knows how much money they spent on that. Their flawed electronic search system is another example of ineffective, grossly expensive automation projects.
Another very basic issue is that they seem to lose half the papers people send to them, and then commit significant resources to reviewing and ruling on the proof that the submitter actually sent the papers. This is routine. The most important part of any submission to their office, regretably, is the proof of mailing.
Then there's the touchy issue of quality. Some of the people who work there are highly competent and dedicated. But a lot of them are really inexperienced. Adding 2000 more will just make this worse.
The commissioners (who have been rotating with considerable frequency of late) always say they want to run the office "like a business." Well guess what? It ain't a "business" and it never will be.
They keep talking about their mission to serve "customers," i.e. the people who file patent applications. This is infuriating. They seem totally to forget that the key part of their mission to to represent the PUBLIC. At one point, a past commissioner actually wanted to privatize the office (and make himself the CEO). They should start thinking about what serving the public actually means, and just lose the part about trying to be a "business." At this point, that would be the most useful "reform," in my opinion.
WRONG, you didnt read the whole thing didin't you!
There would be a major change in the examination process. Examiners would no longer search for prior art, it would all be submitted by the applicant and the search would be preformed by a private search firm. The examiner then would then determine patentablility via that search.
There are several problems with this:
1. Patent examiners know what prior art is out there because they deal solely in a specific technology area (and are intimatly familiar with those sets of patents of record). What happens if the examiner knows of prior art not listed by the applicant? (This has yet to be addressed.)
2. There is a conflict of interest by the private search firm. They are being paid to find prior art that the applicant really doesn't want them to find.
3. You are removing a function of government by eliminating searching.
for more info, http://www.popa.org
thats the examiners union, im not a member by the way.
Bring back the old version of slashdot.