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[horsechute]

Do they really spend 30k to train each examiner? That is outrageous. All you really need to know how to do is issue a passable restriction, bait them into filing an RCE, and then list the max amount of overtime on your timesheet. They should teach how to do that, and then call it the Horsechute Academy.

[patentatt]

"No one cares if an examiner is in the office twiddling his thumbs as long as 1 hour of OT relates to 1 hour of production"

Well, apparently the Inspector General does, because they have a special section for dealing with fraud perpetrated by patent examiners, since it so rampant. 
 

Where can I read about the Inspector General's actions/findings here?

[horsechute]

If you are asking about the special unit/division just for the PTO, this fact was cited by another person in this forum. If you are asking about where you can find information about inspector general actions generally, my guess is that you can obtain statistical information through the freedom of information act. If you are curious about individual cases, then you could obtain this information with some legal database searching in conjunction with searching Pacer, which as you might know, has gotten a bit cheaper lately.

[currentexaminer]

Message to USPTO Employees from
Director David Kappos
As you may know, the FY 2011 budget was signed by the president on April 15, 2011 and contains the USPTO’s appropriation through the end of this fiscal year, September 30, 2011. With the enactment of the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Pub. Law 112-10),  USPTO spending authority for FY 2011 has been limited to $2.09 billion. In view of the funding cuts reflected in the final budget and affecting the U.S. government as a whole, we will be unable to expend the additional $85-100 million in fees that we will be collecting during this fiscal year—funds that we had anticipated being able to use to fund operations this year.
 
In short, the Continuing Appropriations Act for FY 2011 does not allow us to maintain spending at the levels planned for this year. Further, I am mindful of the fact that we may very well be operating at the FY 2011 level for the foreseeable future. As a result, we have had to make some difficult decisions in order to ensure the responsible stewardship of the agency. It is against that backdrop that I must reluctantly announce, effective immediately, that:
All overtime is suspended until further notice;
Hiring—both for new positions and for backfills—is frozen for the rest of the year unless an exemption is given by the Office of the Under Secretary;
Funding for employee training will be limited to mandatory training for the remainder of the year;
Funding for contracting of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) search is significantly reduced;
The opening of the planned Nationwide Workforce satellite office in Detroit and any consideration of other satellite locations are postponed until further notice;
Only limited funding will be available for mission-critical IT capital investments;
The Track One expedited patent examination program, scheduled to go into effect on May 4, 2011, is postponed until further notice.
In addition, all business units will be required to reduce all other non-compensation-related expenses, including travel, conferences and contracts.

Trademark activities are unaffected and will maintain normal operations. 

I want each of you to know that we have not come by these decisions easily. I recognize that these measures will place additional burdens on your offices, your staff, and your ability to carry out the agency’s mission. However, I believe that they are absolutely necessary to ensuring that the agency can continue to operate through the remainder of this fiscal year and into FY 2012.

I thank you for continuing cooperation and patience, and I appreciate your dedication and service during this challenging time.

David Kappos

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO

[dablueman]

ALL HIRING FROZEN AS OF TODAY.

DETROIT OFFICE OPENING POSTPONED INDEFINITELY!

This congressional yoyo-ing of our budget is really irritating. A few months ago overtime was fully restored, now no overtime, all hiring frozen, no Detroit office, no universal laptop program, no training hours, etc.

 

[Master_Blaster]

ALL HIRING FROZEN AS OF TODAY.

DETROIT OFFICE OPENING POSTPONED INDEFINITELY!

This congressional yoyo-ing of our budget is really irritating. A few months ago overtime was fully restored, now no overtime, all hiring frozen, no Detroit office, no universal laptop program, no training hours, etc.

 

I get a kick out of the fee diversion noise at the PTO.

Their argument seems to be that, because they've lost $100M out of a $2100M budget, the world has ended - and all constructive activity therefore immediately ceases.  It's like me giving Rosie O'Donnell two dozen donuts, taking one back, and having her throw a tantrum about being forced to go on a starvation diet.

It is good news that this silliness in Detroit is shut down.  Maybe we'll finally see the adult supervision get engaged with the satellite office idea in a responsible way.

[123abc]

Here is a good response from Patently-O:

Washington is one vicious shell game. Current revenues being used to pay for search/examination of applications filed years ago. There are a lot of similarities with MediCare.

If I ran my law practice that way, I'd lose my ticket and join Blagovich in the slammer.

But there have to be cuts somewhere. The US is strapped, as Michele Bachman keeps reminding us.

Nevertheless, there is always enough US taxpayers' money to keep Israel going and growing -- now growing last year a rate of 4.5%. While Kappos has to freeze hiring and overtime, Obama's new budget deal sends over $3 billion US tax money to Israel -- up $75 million from the 2010 budget. Just the increase is enough to keep Kappos ticking along.

It is no wonder technology investment and patent filings are climbing through the roof in Israel. US taxpayers are footing the education, the research, the venture capital, and the patent examinations while their own patent office takes a $100 million hit. And Israel has a higher standard of living and a higher standard of health than the US. The Israelis should be sending aid to the US.

Of course, the US politicians well know that they themselves will eventually get millions of the Americans' dollars they send to Israel -- the kickbacks come in the form of donations from AIPAC and other Israeli lobbying groups, companies, and individuals.

One vicious shell game. And so it goes.

[Examinerguy]

Their argument seems to be that, because they've lost $100M out of a $2100M budget, the world has ended - and all constructive activity therefore immediately ceases.  It's like me giving Rosie O'Donnell two dozen donuts, taking one back, and having her throw a tantrum about being forced to go on a starvation diet.

The real issue is that we were spending 2.2 billion because they wouldn't give it back to us if we didn't (government would steal the difference). Now that 100 million is being siphoned, we have to throttle back a lot of the discretionary spending to close the gap before we can resume said spending. And who knows, maybe the office has already spent over half the operating budget in the first 6 months and therefore have an even larger issue. 100million makes up about 5% of the budget...but 5% means a lot if you were on track to spending 100% of the budget 6-7 months into the FY.

And Israel has a higher standard of living and a higher standard of health than the US. The Israelis should be sending aid to the US.

That statement is completely false. I can tell you from first hand experience. Life is rough and expensive in Israel.

[dablueman]

Their argument seems to be that, because they've lost $100M out of a $2100M budget, the world has ended - and all constructive activity therefore immediately ceases.  It's like me giving Rosie O'Donnell two dozen donuts, taking one back, and having her throw a tantrum about being forced to go on a starvation diet.

If we're going to make silly analogies lets make them right. It's like Rosie O'Donnell making two dozen donuts, O'Donnell's mother telling her that because she made them she gets to use them (congress passed a few months ago stating as much), then O'Donnell says ok and gives the donuts out only to have O'Donnell's mother come back a few months later and tells her that she can no longer have the donuts she has already given away.

Last year's budget was already suppressed (there was a hiring freeze and limited to no overtime). We're already half way through FY2011 and the PTO had been spending according to what Congress/President/etc. had already said the PTO would get (i.e. no siphoning of fees and funding for needed IT upgrades). Now the Republicans (the proponents of innovation and job creation that they are) decided half way through the fiscal year to slash the PTO's budget.

You can call it a tantrum and belittle all you want but the fact remains that without overtime and hiring, and the continued practice of siphoning funds that are suppose to go toward examining, the backlog has no choice but to go up. I doubt you'll be getting a kick out of it in a few years when the backlog grows to the point you have a 8-10 year wait for a first action, a 2-3 year wait on a first action after an RCE, and a 5-8 year wait for an appeal to reach the Board.

[Team_RamRod]

Examiners have it so easy, yet they find so much to complain about.

Here is the thing: the way the system is set up now, Examiners are cheating the system.  I personally know an Examiner who brags constantly about working less than 30 hrs/week and claiming 10 hrs/week of overtime.  The system is basically paying Examiner's per Office Action, which is a bad way to operate unless you have much more quality control than there currently is at the PTO, because you are encouraging Examiner's to pump out crap Office Actions.  The quality of Office Actions I am seeing is decreasing rapidly.  In particular, I am seeing more and more first Office Actions on the merits which do not even have prior art searches, just a bunch of meritless indefiniteness rejections.  And I am seeing lots of Office Actions in which the Examiner's aren't even searching for good secondary references, they just make some strained KSR reasoning which amounts to stringing together buzzwords like "predictable results" and "finite solutions" without making any of the required factual determinations.

The strategy of the PTO for the past several years seems to be making everything as easy on examiners as possible in hopes of reducing attrition.  That hasn't worked out well.  As far as I can tell, most in the examining core take absolutely no pride in their work, and don't have a working knowledge of even simple concepts such as combination-subcombination in restriction practice.  It is no surprise that attrition would be high in a workforce that doesn't see itself as providing a valuable and moderately complex task for society, but instead is entirely focused on quotas and minimum effort.

anecdote =/= data

[Master_Blaster]

Their argument seems to be that, because they've lost $100M out of a $2100M budget, the world has ended - and all constructive activity therefore immediately ceases.  It's like me giving Rosie O'Donnell two dozen donuts, taking one back, and having her throw a tantrum about being forced to go on a starvation diet.

If we're going to make silly analogies lets make them right. It's like Rosie O'Donnell making two dozen donuts, O'Donnell's mother telling her that because she made them she gets to use them (congress passed a few months ago stating as much), then O'Donnell says ok and gives the donuts out only to have O'Donnell's mother come back a few months later and tells her that she can no longer have the donuts she has already given away.

Last year's budget was already suppressed (there was a hiring freeze and limited to no overtime). We're already half way through FY2011 and the PTO had been spending according to what Congress/President/etc. had already said the PTO would get (i.e. no siphoning of fees and funding for needed IT upgrades). Now the Republicans (the proponents of innovation and job creation that they are) decided half way through the fiscal year to slash the PTO's budget.

You can call it a tantrum and belittle all you want but the fact remains that without overtime and hiring, and the continued practice of siphoning funds that are suppose to go toward examining, the backlog has no choice but to go up. I doubt you'll be getting a kick out of it in a few years when the backlog grows to the point you have a 8-10 year wait for a first action, a 2-3 year wait on a first action after an RCE, and a 5-8 year wait for an appeal to reach the Board.

I doubt Rosie makes donuts.  I'm also skeptical that the PTO delivers value.  It merely does a mediocre job distributing a negative right.

And if que times increase, inventors will just adjust their strategies - like a they would if the tax code changed.

The PTO is merely an agency, not an institution.  I'd be content to slash its budget by 80% and send the lion's share of the work to India.  We'd get better examining with better service.  It's doable - it's not like we're talking about outsourcing something important, like the post office.

The lady doth protest too much...

[blaze1306]

"The PTO is merely an agency, not an institution.  I'd be content to slash its budget by 80% and send the lion's share of the work to India.  We'd get better examining with better service.  It's doable - it's not like we're talking about outsourcing something important, like the post office."

Dumbest....post....ever.......
Lets just outsource the legal system, auto registration, home loans, dating, child brearing and representative goverment....

This is tech support can I help you?
Yes I'd like  to order a vote for my candidate for president.
I'm sorry our system is down, better luck next year. Thank you come again.

[horsechute]

If the PTO were a truly independent agency, they would not have all those layers of insulation which keep the slow and infirm there from being fired. The examiners  want it both ways: they want to be treated like adults, but then get all the protection afforded to little children.

Also, I don't mind seeing the boatload of bogus overtime taken away, but I feel a bit sorry for the people who need jobs. 6 months to a year from now they will probably start hiring again, but that is a long time from now. The good thing is, the private sector, particularly technology is picking up, so people should pass the patent bar asap and start shopping their resumes to areas with lots of technology development, like silicon valley. They may not realize it now, but congress just did them a big favor.

[Master_Blaster]

"The PTO is merely an agency, not an institution.  I'd be content to slash its budget by 80% and send the lion's share of the work to India.  We'd get better examining with better service.  It's doable - it's not like we're talking about outsourcing something important, like the post office."

Dumbest....post....ever.......
Lets just outsource the legal system, auto registration, home loans, dating, child brearing and representative goverment....

"This is tech support can I help you?
Yes I'd like  to order a vote for my candidate for president.
I'm sorry our system is down, better luck next year. Thank you come again."

"Yes I'd like  to order a vote for my candidate for president.
I'm sorry our system is down, better luck next year. "

Dumb would be believing that one votes for a President annually.

[blaze1306]

"The PTO is merely an agency, not an institution.  I'd be content to slash its budget by 80% and send the lion's share of the work to India.  We'd get better examining with better service.  It's doable - it's not like we're talking about outsourcing something important, like the post office."

Dumbest....post....ever.......
Lets just outsource the legal system, auto registration, home loans, dating, child brearing and representative goverment....

"This is tech support can I help you?
Yes I'd like  to order a vote for my candidate for president.
I'm sorry our system is down, better luck next year. Thank you come again."

"Yes I'd like  to order a vote for my candidate for president.
I'm sorry our system is down, better luck next year. "

Dumb would be believing that one votes for a President annually.

Thats the system your endorsing... how about you get a clue..

Oh wait lets outsource that( is that sarcasm I smell)