Patent examiner representatives have written to the
heads of the patent offices in Europe, the US and Canada demanding
changes to the way patents are examined.
Massive increases in the numbers of patents to be examined mean
that the quality of assessment of each is falling and the harm
being done to technical progress is significant, the examiners
said.
"The importance of intellectual property is demonstrated by the
increase of new patent applications during the last twenty years,"
said the letter, titled 'The future of the patent system'.
"Recently, however, many in the intellectual property community
have come to realize that an increase in patent applications does
not necessarily represent an increase in technological
progress.
"They now recognize that poor-quality patents can become a
hindrance to, rather than a stimulus of, innovation and economic
growth. They understand that a strong patent system requires high
patent standards and quality examination," said the letter.
The examiners said that a build up of outstanding applications
and a focus by patent office managers on quantity, not quality, of
examinations means that the whole system is in danger of suffering
irreparable damage.
"Patent offices worldwide continue to focus on their backlogs of
applications and ways to increase examiner productivity," they
said. "Unfortunately, in many patent offices, the pressures on
examiners to produce and methods of allocating work have reduced
the capacity of examiners to provide the quality of examination the
peoples of the world deserve. Quality examination requires skilled,
well-trained and motivated examiners, powerful and efficient search
and examination tools and, most importantly, the time necessary for
examiners to apply those skills, training and tools to the
examination of patent applications."
The patent examiners made a series of demands of the patent
office heads. They said the offices must allow examiners more time
to analyse and research each patent; provide more ongoing training
for examiners; and urge governments to create laws which discourage
undeserving patents by providing sensible standards of
patentability.
"We, the undersigned representatives of patent examiners, join
together in declaring that the combined pressures of higher
productivity demands, increasingly complex patent applications and
an ever-expanding body of relevant patent and non-patent literature
have reached such a level that, unless serious measures are taken,
meaningful protection of intellectual property throughout the world
may, itself, become history," they said.
