There are more than 1.2 millionapplications for patents waiting to be processed by the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office (PTO). One third of the Patent Office’s examiner’s must workfrom home because there is simply not enough office space. The delay between aninventor filing a patent and a review by the Patent Office averages more thanthree years. Many of those inventions stuck in the bureaucratic backlog willpromote jobs and economic growth. One of them may be the next great consumerproduct.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) hopes tochange that. He has proposed an amendment to a Patent Reform Bill currentlybeing discussed in the Senate that would create a lockbox for user fees paid tothe PTO during the application process.
Currently, any fees the PTO collectsare deposited in the Treasury and then used by appropriators to fund othergovernment projects. Since 1992 nearly $1 billion in fees have been collectedby the Patent Office, only to be diverted and spent elsewhere in the federalbudget. This has led to the strange result of an underfunded Patent Officedespite a bloated federal budget. Dr. Coburn’s amendment would end thispractice so that any fees paid to the PTO would go straight into a fund that itcould use to cover its operating expenses.
This would be a clear boon to thePatent Office, and perhaps more importantly, to the economy. The Patent Officewould be able to better fund its operations, allowing it to hire more examinersand purchase the office space it needs to operate. Reducing the backlog ofpatent applications would also unleash a flood of new products or productionmethods that may provide the economic spark needed to hasten our recovery.
Who knows, the next iPhone or Googlemight be sitting in line, just waiting to create jobs and wealth. Without Dr.Coburn’s amendment we might have to wait a lot longer to find out.