PTO treading water with one leg

If you thought the present problems at the US Patent Office might get better soon, thought that you might get a meaningful, thoughtful office action in months rather than years, thought your application might get accepted or rejected on grounds that plausibly relate to the subject matter; sorry, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

The GAO has just released its study of USPTO staffing levels (see GAO report) and the title says it all: "Hiring Efforts Are Not Sufficient to Reduce Patent Application Backlog". And of course, the heavy workload that results from the backlog is a contributing factor to many (but not all) the ills of the patent office.

The GAO conclusion was based on several key findings:

• The PTO annual hiring plan is based on budget - there is no identification of how many examiners they need to reduce the backlog.
• For every 2 new examiners hired between '02 and '06, 1 left. This attrition is not considered, so the PTO is essentially increasing the examiner staff at half of its planned rate. 70% of the departing examiners had tenures of 5 years or less.
• The PTO thinks examiners leave for personal reasons: 67% of the examiners say it is the workload (i.e., "production goals").
• 70% of the examiners say they have had to work unpaid overtime to meet their goals.

Although the GAO was not chartered with identifying the causes of the poor patent examination (specifically allowances that shouldn't have happened and rejections that defy logic) it does not take much of an imagination to believe that the high workload (production goals haven't been changed since 1976) and significant turn over at the inexperienced "worker bee" level (e.g., the recent hires) would lead to these negative outcomes.

So when it comes to sink or swim, the PTO is at best treading water... but hardly.