Former PTO Heads Press For Backlog Solution
From Friday's CongressDaily AM Edition:
Reducing the Patent and Trademark Office's growing backlog of applications should be one of the highest priorities for the agency in the Obama administration, several former high-level PTO officials agreed Thursday. An array of proposals for streamlining the office have been floated in legislation introduced in recent sessions of Congress and by intellectual property stakeholders, but Gerald Mossinghoff -- who ran the office under the late President Ronald Reagan -- believes none of them will be successful until the estimated 1.2 million applications are reduced.
The PTO has maintained there is a 700,000-application backlog, which does not include applications that are currently being examined. Mossinghoff, who serves as special counsel at Oblon Spivak, called the problem "horrendous" and criticized PTO Director Jon Dudas of setting annual "soft, stair-step goals" rather than projecting where the agency will stand in four and eight years. "They achieve their goals but don't cut into backlog," he said. Read the full story here (subscription required).
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