The United States Patent Office (“USPTO”) faces criticism from its users and legislators that the timeliness of the patent process and ultimate quality of issued patents are inadequate. In order to address this criticism Congress made several changes to the authorities of the USPTO in the last decade and considered more changes in 2009. Nevertheless, problems persist and some stakeholders argue that reorganizing the USPTO as a government corporation would best alleviate these problems by broadening its authorities even further and releasing it from external constraints.
The USPTO had a backlog of over one million patents at the end of 2008. Given the rapid pace at which technology currently evolves, demand for patents is only likely to increase. The average time to review and issue a patent is thirty-two months. The office is unable to keep adequately educated staff even as it hires 1,200 new employees every year. The attrition rate at the USPTO is over ten percent, significantly higher than any other agency. This is particularly burdensome because the USPTO requires three to five years to train new hires.
Among the many proposals to alleviate these problems is the proposal that Congress restructure the USPTO as a government corporation. Congress considered this proposal several times in the 1990’s and the National Academy of Public Administration (“NAPA”) released a report in support of this idea. Though H.R. 400 passed in the House in 1997, the Clinton Administration favored, and Congress passed, legislation establishing the USPTO as a performance-based organization (“PBO”) instead. Proponents of structuring the USPTO as a government corporation argue that the USPTO will be better able to serve the ne...
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...ed States Patent Office, supra note 1, at 11.
Id.
Id. at 13-14.
Id. at vii.
Id. at ix-x.
Restructuring the United States Patent Office, supra note 1, at 27-28.
Id. at 11.
Id. at 24-25.
S. 610, 111th Cong. at Sect. 9(a).
S. Rep No. 111-18 Supplemental Views of Senators Coburn, Hatch, Grassley, and Kyl (2009).
Restructuring the Patent and Trademark Office, supra note 1, at 12.
Id.
Id.
See, Restructuring the Patent and Trademark Office, supra note 1, at 15-28.
Restructuring the Patent and Trademark Office, supra note 1, at 15.
Id. at 16.
Id.
Id.
Id. at 15.
Restructuring the Patent and Trademark Office, supra note1, at 15.
Id. at 19.
Incorporating the Patent and Trademark Office, supra note 12, at 32.
Restructuring the Patent and Trademark Office, supra note 1, at 20-21.
Id. at 21-23.
Id. at 15-28.
(7) Hall B. Patents and Patent Policy -. 2007. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Morse H. SETTLEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRIES: ANTITRUST RULES. Allison JR, Lemley MA, Moore KA, Trunkey RD. Valuable patents. Geol.
Often, when the discussion of American bureaucracy is broached in conversation, those holding these conversations often think of the many men and women who operate behind the scenes within the government. This same cross section of Americans is looked upon as the real power within the federal government and unlike the other branches of government, has little to no oversight. A search of EBSCO resulted in the following definition, an organization “structure with a rigid hierarchy of personnel, regulated by set rules and procedures” (Bureaucracy, 2007). Max Weber believed that a bureaucracy was technically the most efficient form of organization, one structured around official functions that are bound by rules, each function having its own specified competence (2007). This wide ranging group of Americans has operated within the gaps, behind the scenes, all under the three core branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The division of government into three branches and separate powers gives each branch both exclusive powers and some additional power...
It’s hard for one to fathom how USPTO senior leadership could fall for such an elementary tactic but more importantly why now. The story gets better, acco...
Lobbyists and the Legislative Process. Word Count: 1,638 words. Table of Contents Part A: The Plan of Investigation 3.
...nments, corporations and public institutions for the common good. [Which]… required a broadly framed policy” (229).
The current Obama Administration has affirmed this goal. In a recent letter to the heads of all executive departments and agencies, the Administration As it currently stands, many TTO’s lose money. There are currently various petitions being circulated to increase the percentage of revenues that a university can apply towards administrative costs. Enabling universities to freely assign patents that are currently not generating any revenue will help recover sunk costs. Additionally, as required by the Act, the increase in revenues for the TTO’s can be applied to further education and research budgets. Although the Act is considered a huge success, certain technologies are being left out in the dark because they are not ideally suited for licesning. Further, the inventions derived from federal funding that fail to be licensed deserve a second chance to be commercialized. This proposed amendment will allow those technologies a second chance, free of any government
Critics have long charged that licensing’s real effect restricts entry to applicable occupations by reducing competition within its professional sphere and furthermore acts to protect existing business interests from increased competition. As a result, there exists a real propensity to impinge on consumer sovereignty with potentially less selection in the marketplace for those subject goods and services. And while these are valid arguments, those seeking entry into any government-regulated professions have few choices unless they follow-through with the mandated licensure procedures. Examples of licensure in commonly practiced professions include attorneys at law, medical doctors, mortgage brokers, accountants, cosmetologists, and hundreds
Prior to this new law, it was found that the federal department of health insurance had been regulated mostly at the state level. Indeed the executive branch needed continuous public input and collaboration with other industries, but none the less enforcement became even more compelling. Creating new designs to customize Medicare payments for example needed to only be through certain providers according to Snyder (2010). This gave the executi...
INTRODUCTION Capitol Strategies Group (CSG) is pleased to submit a proposal to provide government affairs consulting to Compliance Innovations, LLC. Capitol Strategies Group’s team of experts has decades of experience successfully advocating on behalf of a wide range of clients. Our strong ties to the legislative and executive branches of government, long-standing bi-partisan relationships, and institutional knowledge has attracted major companies, trade associations, and other organizations to Capitol Strategies Group for insight, access, and results. Our firm has a strong portfolio of clients that provide our lobbyists with high level exposure on numerous issues. Our access to the decision makers in Lansing is strong and we are confident
Thereby we chose Gerry Stoker’s article from 1998, “Governance as theory: five propositions”. This article puts up 5 propositions that characterizes governance. As Stoker also states, these propositions lies the foundation for a questioning of how public administration traditionally has been viewed with extended focus on the government. Governance, according to Stoker means “a change in the meaning of government, referring to a new process of governing; or a changed condition of which society is governed” (Stoker, 1998, pp. 17). The priority of governance is to ultimately construct conditions for an ordered rule and a shared, unified action. Stoker states that “the first message of governance is to challenge constitutional/formal understandings of systems of government” (Stoker, 1998, pp. 19). This aspect was important to implement in the writings of this project because it helped to analyze the policies and institutions. Within the article about governance, Stoker writes about five different propositions that can be used to analyze the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, the five propositions helped to understand the inner workings of the industry from a governance viewpoint (Stoker,
The United States has long been a leader in scientific research, but it will take industry, academia, and government working together for our country to stay there. Since the implementation of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which gave universities greater control over intellectual property, research universities have teamed up with partners during early-stage development to further their resources. The new task of universities was not to conduct research with the intent to make money, but to present their findings to the public domain for the sake of knowledge and the public good. In 2004, David Sinclair and Christopher Westphal, two innovative scientists following their intuition, founded Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. The founding idea arose from Sinclair’s
Rabin, J. (2003). Encyclopedia of public administration and public policy: K-Z. United States: CRC press.
It is a common perception that the threshold for patent grant is lower than those of Australia’s major trading partners. Indeed, according to the legal interpretation of the statues, the body in charge of the Australian patent system, IPAustralia, maintains a lower threshold of novelty and inventiveness compared to the United States Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO)[1]. However, a study by Jensen et al.[2] comparing grant rates of different patent offices finds the patentability threshold in Australia higher than that of the USPTO.
...ice of public administration will continue to change with the further advances in society. Already there are many of issues that tomorrow’s public administrators will be dealing with. These issues will be varied and complex and will concern the ongoing development of computers, possible advancements in health care and science, and even major social and legislative shifts.
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