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U.S. Patent Office To Require Class Presentations

Written on
Jun 8, 2007 
Author
Sarah Novotny  |
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U.S. Patent Office To Require Class Presentations

rubikscube.jpgThe director of the government’s patent office put out a statement that said the Bush administration wants to reform the nation’s patent system by allowing public scrutiny of applications and more sepecific information from inventors.

The goal is to curb the rise of patent disputes and lawsuits which have become prevolent, by improving the quality of patents according to director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Jon W. Dudas. Most legal complaints are over broad descriptions of ideas or activites, software that only contains miniscule changes from prior works, and business methods.

“There ought to be a shared responsibility for patent quality among the patent office, the applicants and the public,” Dudas said. “If everything is done right at the front end, we’ll have to worry a lot less about litigation later.”

Dudas steps in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to present a proposal to improve patent quality which would entail changes in the law. Both the Senate and the House have presented patent-reform legislation this year in repsonse to the concerns over the overwhelming number of legal cases that have risen due to an outdated system.

Under current law, applicants have a lot of discretion when presenting why an invention is original enough to deserve exclusive rights to the patent. Dudas proposes legal clarification to be required of applicants. The supporting information, Dudas said, ranges from “almost nothing” to what he called “malicious compliance,” which he described as boxes and boxes of background information intended mainly to obscure the nugget of an invention in the patent application.

According to Dudas, reformation should have mandatory and thorough research of related patent and technical journals by all applicants, and then an explanation of why the innovation to be represented by the patent is a significant innovation in its field.

Dudas adds that legislation should not put an unfair budren on inventors who are not wealthy. “For the truly small inventor, we might do the search for them,” he said. Income as well as other criteria such as number of patents filed should be used to consider possible exemption of some requirements.

There is also the concept of an open examination process, which would allow the public to conduct a peer review. The pilot project will start on June 15 according to Dudas. Members of the public with software expertise will be allowed to send the patent office technical references relevant to the patent claims.

This initial test will apply only to patent applicants in the information technology field, and only with an applicant’s approval. Official changes would not require the applicant’s approval and extend the method to all fields.

The patent office has hired more examiners, 1,200 last year alone, bringing staff its staff to more than 5,000. “We’ve taken steps, and the result has been that a lot more patents are rejected,” Mr. Dudas said. 49% of patents were approed first quarter, down from 2000′s 72%. “But those numbers also tell you there are a lot of bad patent applications.”

Of course, major changes pending, there are skeptics to the results of requiring better information. Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner stated that “the growing complexity of technology makes it more difficult for a single person — applicant or examiner — to assess the innovative merit of a patent claim.”

“That’s why I think really opening the examination process to public peer review is so important,” Mr. Lerner said. “While the patent office has shown a willingness to experiment with openness, I would put that at the center.”





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