Thursday, August 04, 2005

Patent system's problems defy easy solutions

In the early 1800s, the U.S. patent office was housed at a converted hotel in Washington, D.C., and when applications were approved, a clerk would ride the agency's pony across town to get the president's signature on them.
Reliance on the horse was a sign of the "primitive state of the country and of the patent office at the time, where the quickest way to deliver messages around the city of Washington was by a boy on a pony," according to "The Patent Office Pony," by Kenneth W. Dobyns. He also writes that in 1835, the office issued 757 patents.
If only things had stayed so simple. In fiscal 2004, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved about half of the 376,810 applications it received, according to preliminary data, and it expects a flood of new activity this year. Although the office has raised application fees and hired new examiners, by many accounts the agency is struggling with its workload.

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