The Patent and Trademark Office has not fully assessed the effects of the time it allots for patent examiners to assess an application or the impact on quality of patents of the monetary incentives it pays examiners to be productive, GAO has said.
“Without assessing the effects of current incentives for examiners or the time allotted for examination, USPTO cannot be assured that its time allotments and incentives support the agency’s patent quality goals,” a report said.
It said that the PTO offers monetary incentives for timeliness and production but does not offer any similar incentive for producing high-quality work. Bonuses for production “appear to motivate examiners to complete their work quickly” but “may be at odds with patent quality,” it said.
GAO said that its field work and a questionnaire of patent examiners found that “time pressures on examiners are a central challenge for patent quality. Based on GAO’s survey of patent examiners, GAO estimates that 70 percent of the population of examiners say they do not have enough time to complete a thorough examination given a typical workload.”
In addition, it said, about the same percentage worked voluntary or uncompensated overtime in the prior six months to meet their minimum production goals.