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Patent expert Harold Wagner emails that a DC patent lawyer just received a letter from USPTO:
It is estimated that this application will receive an Office action in approximately 165 months. This is an estimate that is based on the current inventory of applications filed in this art area and the current staffing levels in this Art Unit. Perhaps a typo? 14 years seems a bit long, even in today's congested conditions.
But even 16.5 months would be unconscionable, given that the average patent gets about three days of examiner attention all told, not just before first office action.
Patent examination should be a business service, available, like express delivery, in whatever time frame you need and are willing to pay for. Increasingly, I doubt that this can be done within the framework of a government bureaucracy.
Maybe PFF should start a political movement: Privatize Patents! It'll sweep the nation.
posted by James DeLong @ 1:31 PM |
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