Intellectual Property: Key Processes for Managing Patent Automation Strategy Need Strengthening;Report to the Congress

摘要

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) helps to promote industrial and technological progress in the United States and to strengthen the national economy by administering the laws relating to patents and trademarks. A critical part of the agency's mission is to examine patent applications and issue patents. However, the rapid growth in both the volume and complexity of applications to USPTO has lengthened the necessary to process patents and raised concerns about the quality of patents that are issued. The number of patent applications filed annually has increased 91 percent over the last 10 years, from about 185,000 in to over 350,000 in 2004. Coupled with this growing workload is a 28-month backlog of approximately 750,000 applications. USPTO has long recognized the need to improve its patent processing capability and, for the past two decades, has engaged in various efforts automate its patent process. In light of the agency's actions, this report describes USPTO's strategy for automating its patent process and assesses its progress and any problems faced in developing and using electronic information and systems to achieve this capability.