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Financial Woes Continue to Deepen at the USPTO

By Peter Zura

Earlier, this blog and others picked up on comments from PTO officials indicating that decreased rates of patent filings and allowances, coupled with the current economic morass, is translating into a toxic mix for the financial health of the USPTO.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is preparing to name the PTO Director in the coming days, and the odds-on favorites for the position are (1) Q. Todd Dickinson, (2) Jim Pooley and (3) David Kappos. Whoever gets selected, a giant mess awaits, according to Andrew Noyes, who writes in his Congress Daily article:

The Obama administration's selection of a Patent and Trademark Office director cannot come soon enough, according to officials inside the agency. They cite serious cash-flow problems, internal cutbacks and a downturn in the number of applications filed and patents granted amid continued U.S. economic gloom . . . If fee collection trends continue, PTO will take in $100 million below its projected year-end amount, according to a memo sent to employees Monday.

The PTO . . . recently instituted a hiring freeze for virtually all of the agency's divisions . . . Officials have curtailed bonuses for all noncontractual awards, which affected those who do not belong to bargaining units, and they have slashed paid overtime for examiners starting this week.

[T]he PTO has told employees that furloughs and layoffs would be a last resort. The office has also significantly slowed its $250 million per year plan to install servers and energy-efficient equipment. The existing system has not been upgraded in almost a decade, and Budens said some are worried the agency's IT network is "hanging on by bubble gum and bailing wire."

Read "Cash-strapped Patent and Trademark Office awaits new leadership" (link)

See also

Patently-O: "Economic Downturn => Downturn in Patent Filings" (link)

IPWatchdog: "USPTO Budget Crisis and the Anonymous Patent Examiner" (link)

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).