ZPEnergy.com - Increasing patent fees

From KeelyNet List [Jerry]:
Hi Folks!
Thought you might find this one worth reading about;
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/1874477

More patents pending ... and pending; chief wants to up fees By CARL HARTMAN - Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- There's an awful lot pending at the patent office these days...

A record backlog at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has left inventors waiting two years and more for approvals.

James A. Rogan, who heads the office, has warned Congress that the backlog of applications could soar to more than a million by 2008 -- more than twice today's level -- unless he can increase the fees inventors pay by about 15 percent. The average patent will soon take as long as four years, he said.

"My guess is that somewhere in that (backlog) there are life-enhancing, productivity-increasing, job-producing items, technologies ... that we'd be better having today than waiting for," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif.

Berman is the ranking minority member of the subcommittee in the House of Representatives that deals with intellectual property. Patent officials blame the delays on more applications and longer reviews for increasingly complex inventions.

"The effect varies from business to business," said Brigid Quinn, a patent office spokeswoman. "For some, like electronics, quick turnover is important. In others, it doesn't matter so much."

Individual inventors, now a minority, can file an application for $375, but later fees bring the total to more than $4,000. Big firms pay nearly twice as much, usually with big additional costs for legal and other outside advice.

Money from the fee increase would be for improved quality checks, greater use of electronics in processing applications and the hiring of
2,900 examiners over the next five years. The agency now has 3,500, about 200 of whom it loses every year by attrition.

Examiners, all of whom have science or engineering degrees, determine whether the invention offers anything new. About two-thirds are approved, though not always on the first try. About half go to foreigners.

Lisa Lloyd, president of the United Inventors Association of Rochester, N.Y., said the longer it takes to get a patent, the longer an inventor must wait.

"People with inventions in the automotive field, for instance, have to license their inventions to a big firm like Ford or General Motors," she said. "They can't get any income until they do. The big corporations won't even look at an idea if the patent is still pending."

Once a patent is granted, the inventor has the exclusive rights for 20 years. Ownership rights -- and the ability to profit from them -- spur inventiveness, said Nick Godici, commissioner for patents.

Every year, applications come from hundreds of thousands of people.

Recently a small group of bird lovers and engineers around Richmond, Va., patented a cheaper device to toss squirrels off a bird feeder.

Two applications still pending:

7 Mark Pierson of Binghamton, N.Y., has developed a soft plastic he calls Get-A-Grip. It molds to the human hand and sticks to a pen, a tool or a golf club so the user can always get his personalized grip.

7 Kathleen Di Scenna of Syracuse, N.Y., has designed a device to keep your hands free while using a cell phone. A crescent-shaped arm hangs from a headband, dodges the nose and holds the phone close to the mouth.

Under the first U.S. patent law, applications had to be examined by the secretary of state, the secretary of war and the attorney general.

Abraham Lincoln hosted a ball at the old Patent Office to celebrate his second inauguration, a few weeks before he was assassinated. He's the only president to hold a patent.