The USPTO is signaling to people that it will be cutting its spending with the Commerce Department mentioning that the USPTO is continuing its effort to develop a sequestration plan. This plan is said to be work in progress, and its details are still forthcoming. Sending this signal of budget cut means a huge deal to innovators and parties that are considering applying for patents or even disputing patents. The lack of funds will delay patents or trademarks examinations, further extending the wait-time for any process.
That being said, the USPTO is still identifying potential savings and projects that could be managed in a way that minimizes the impact of this budget cut on both its services, and its employees. Non-examination related spending will be the first to focus on, so as not to affect the standards and performance of the examinations as much.
This reduction of spending, although having a negative connotation, is not as bad as it seems if considered over a few years. The USPTO's current budget has increased by almost 50% over the past 3 years, and the sequester reduction is minuscule compared to the size of this increase. However, firms should still expect some form of change in the standard or service provided, which is most likely translated to longer wait times. This then bodes ill for companies awaiting patent issuance or litigations status, that are really time sensitive.
I think the budge cut affects small companies more than big firms since the big firms already have some patent in hands to sue others. Compare to cut budget, it seems more essential for USPTO to reconsider the way how they rule the patent.
ReplyDeleteThe USPTO seems to really be running into some issues: the increased patent application backlog, allegations of them having decreased the standards for patent approval and just the increase in the number of patents filed. Having budget cuts will by no means help any of these situations.
ReplyDeleteI have talked about this before and it really upsets me to see budget cuts to the USPTO especially since they are responsible for the innovation in this country. However, these budget cuts could force the USPTO to get creative and figure out quicker ways to approve patents, but probably not.
ReplyDeleteAdam, if the USPTO finda a quicker way to approve patents I feel like there would be a lot more mistakes made internally causing great complications and confusions among the inventors. Also I did not know of the 50% increase over the last three years. I guess its not so much of a set back now since three years ago they were much worse off.
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