By
Sarah Fendrick --
On
December 18, 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the launch of an interactive patent
pendency model (PPM). The PPM
enables users to see how overall application pendency is affected by the number of examiner hires per year, the amount of overtime worked, and
patent filing levels. In one example, the model shows that an additional
1,000 examiners hired between 2010-2012 could reduce the backlog from 719,000 to
just over 470,000 by the end of 2012. Alternatively, if no new examiners were hired and no overtime was
allowed, the current backlog could increase to 1,651,000, and the first action
pendency would increase from 25 months to 67 months.
The
PPM was established to further the USPTO's efforts to increase transparency and
to reduce patent pendency. In the Office's press release regarding the launch of the PPM, USPTO Director David Kappos
stated "[i]n our ongoing effort to operate with a high level of
transparency, we are launching an interactive Patent Pendency Model so that our
stakeholders can fully appreciate the variables that affect the pendency of
applications."
The PPM webpage can be
found in the Patent statistics area of the USPTO Web site.
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