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Article: Losing the race: is the Patent Office's slowness putting uU.S.innovation at risk? (Smarts).
- Article from:
- Entrepreneur
- Article date:
- May 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AS THE US. PATENT AND Trademark Office (USPTO) celebrates its 200th birthday this year, it also faces the gravest predicament in its history. Put simply, the office can no longer keep pace with the burgeoning number of patent applications it is currently receiving.
In the 1980s, the USPTO received about 150,000 applications per year; over the past decade, it has averaged nearly 300,000 applications annually, as the growth of the Internet has led to a spike in patents and inventors have begun patenting incremental improvements. The office now has a backlog of more than 300,000 applications, generally considered the most complicated legal documents in the world. ...