Abstract
Despite recent patent law reforms, the US Patent and Trademark Office's ability to deal with inefficiencies in patent examination will continue to rely on the annual Congressional appropriations process.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, H.R. 1249, August 23, 2010. <http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h1249/text>
Leahy, P. The America Invents Act: promoting American innovation, creating American jobs, growing America's economy. <http://leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/PRESS-Summary-OnePager-FINAL.pdf> (23 August 2010).
Anonymous. Nature 477, 249–250 (2011).
Quinn, G. Lack of commitment on PTO funding is killing patent reform. IP Watchdog <http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/06/22/lack-of-commitment-on-pto-funding-is-killing-patent-reform/id=17813/> (22 June 2011).
Bessen, J. & Meurer, M.J. Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk (Princeton University Press, 2008).
Hall, B.H. J. Technol. Transf. 30, 35–48 (2005).
Hegde, D., Mowery, D.C. & Graham, S.J. Manage. Sci. 55, 1214–1226 (2009).
Jaffe, A.B. & Lerner, J. Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It (Princeton University Press, 2004).
Shapiro, C. Berkeley Technol. Law J. 19, 1017–1018 (2004).
Lemley, M.A. & Sampat, B.N. Emory Law J. 58, 415–427 (2008).
Committee on Intellectual Property Rights in the Knowledge-Based Economy, National Research Council. A Patent System for the 21st Century (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2004).
Anonymous. US Patent and Trademark Office: Transforming to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century (National Academy of Public Administration, Washington, DC, 2005).
Acknowledgements
D.H. is grateful to Stuart Graham for facilitating this study. The author also thanks Dianne Buie, Dana Colarulli, Todd Dickinson, Talis Dzenitis, David Fitzpatrick, Bronwyn Hall, Bruce Lehman, Alan Marco, Gerald Mossinghoff, Christopher Pearson, Michelle Picard, Tom Stoll and Gerard Torres for helpful discussions and suggestions. Part of this research was conducted when D.H. was a visiting scholar at the Chief Economist's Office in the USPTO. The analysis and recommendations in this manuscript, however, are solely D.H.'s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USPTO. All data reported in this paper are archived in the annual USPTO Performance and Accountability Reports (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/ann_rpt_intermed.htm).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Text and Figures
Supplementary Tables 1–7 (PDF 86 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hegde, D. Funding and performance at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Nat Biotechnol 30, 148–150 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2110
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2110