Patent Office Shows Record Backlog

Posted by michael on Friday April 18, 2003 @05:46AM from the free-money-get-your-free-money-here dept.

acroyear writes "WTOP, 1500am, a news radio station in the DC area, is reporting that the Patent Office Is Seeing Record Backlog, with 2 years for a patent now, and potentially 4 years to wait by decade's end, and the PTO is considering a 15% increase in filing fees. Personally, I think if they had set a trend of actually rejecting patents that don't belong, they'd have sent enough of a message to keep application numbers to a reasonable level; right now, everybody files because just about everything can get one."

1 of 235 comments (clear)

Alternative by smoondog · 2003-04-18 05:53 · Score: 0, Troll

everybody files because just about everything can get one

Why should we make the USPTO due the homework of a patent lawyer? Another way to filter patents (and lower taxpayer burden) is to leave it up to the courts. To prevent abuses, there should be strong penalties for filing a patent that gets overturned in court. Useless patents are never challenged and nobody cares; useful patents get their due. Lawyers make more money. See? Everybody's happy.

-Sean