1.2 Million Pending Patent Appl ns (con d): Michelle Lee s Testimony. [W]e ve taken huge strides in reducing our backlog and pendency.

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1 1.2 Million Pending Patent Appl ns (con d): Michelle Lee s Testimony [W]e ve taken huge strides in reducing our backlog and pendency. Michelle K. Lee, Senate Confirmation Hearings December 10, 2014 Yesterday, the Administration s nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce to head the Patent Office made the quoted statement; she was defending the Administration s record for reducing the backlog of patent applications. Michelle K. Lee, Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearings, Testimony Responsive to Question of Senator Charles Grassley, as quoted by Allissa Wickham, Sens. Quiz USPTO Nominee Lee On Backlog, Telework Abuses, Law360 (December 10, 2014) Huge Strides, the 1.2 Million Backlog Remains at 1.2 Million: In fact, the 1.2 million pending application backlog from FY2010 remains at 1.2 million pending applications, with the needle moving toward reducing the backlog by about one percent, but at a cost of an annual budget now one billion dollars above that of FY2010 and with nearly 9000 examiners (as opposed to just over 6000 at the start of the Administration). Details about the backlog are based upon the Annual Reports of the Patent Office as per the note yesterday (attached). Regards, Hal December 11, 2014

2 Wegner, Harold C. From: Wegner, Harold C. Sent: Wednesday, December 10, :22 PM Subject: The 1.2 Million Backlog of Pending Applications, Unchanged Since FY2010, Why? Attachments: PatentPendencyStatisticsDec10.pdf The backlog of pending patent applications that stood at 1.2 million cases in FY2010 remains at 1.2 million cases at the end of FY2014, despite an annual budget that has grown by one billion dollars per year with more than two thousand (2000) additional examiners. (In fact, the backlog has decreased by about one percent over this period.) The culprit is a culture of refiling applications such that nearly 50 % of applications are refiled applications, adding an enormous and unnecessary examination workload on the Office. Statistics that are self-explanatory are provided as an attachment. Naples 2015: The Third Annual Naples Midwinter Patent Experts Conference to be held February 9-10, 2015, will have a focus on reforms to deal with the backlog situation. Regards, Hal 1

3 Patent Pendency Statistics * The 1.2 Million Application Inventory in 2014 remains at Million Applications with a Razor Thin One (1) Percent Reduction over that Period but at a cost of nearly additional examiners and One Billion Dollars Per Year... Added to the Budget Background Information for the 2015 Naples Conference ** (I) PTO Backlog Reduction ( ) 2 (II) Net Patent Application Pendency (2009 vs. 2014) 2 (III) Patent Application Pendency (2014) 3 (IV) Pending Application Inventory ( Backlog ) 3 (V) 2000 Additional Patent Examiners (UPR) 3 (VI) Patent Application Pendency (2014) (U.S. PTO 20 Month Goal 4 versus Net Reality to Patent Grant) (VII) Patent Office RCE Filing Estimates FY FY APPENDIX: Extracts from the FY2010 and FY2014 PTO Annual Reports 6 APPENDIX: 46 % of New Applications are Refiles 7 * Table (I) is based upon data in the Annual Reports of the PTO for FY2010 and FY2014. Tables (II)-(VII) were originally presented as Tables (I)-(VI) in a paper dated August 9, 2014, which in turn are based upon data explained in greater detail in the to The List, The PTO s Little Secret Acting-as- Director Michelle Lee Didn t Share with Congress (as corrected August 8, 2014, 5:15 PM). This version: December 9, 2014 ** The Third Annual Naples Midwinter Patent Experts Conference to be held February 9-10, 2014, at the Naples Beach Hotel will include a focus on administrative reforms in the examining corps and at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to deal with the backlogs that now exist.

4 (I) PTO Backlog Reduction ( ) Continued 1.2 Million Pending Cases Backlog A one (1) Percent One (1) Billion Dollars/Year * Year Backlog of Pending Patent Applications Examiners Pending Preexam. Examination Post-Ex. Total Backlog/Ex ,245, ,428 1,069,652 82,494 6, ,227, , , ,316 8, Change 17, ,907 82,661 17,822 2, * The Patent Office budget has swollen by an increase of one billion dollars per year over the past four years as the size of the examining corps has increased by nearly 2400 examiners, while the goal of decreasing the backlog of applications has shrunk by just one percent. The statistics (except the far right column) are taken from the PTO s Annual Reports for FY2010 and FY2014; excerpts from the two Annual Reports are included on the last page of this paper as an Appendix. (II) Net Patent Application Pendency 2009 vs ( time in years from earliest priority date under 35 USC 119, 120 up until grant)

5 (III) Patent Application Pendency (2014) (measured In years) Net Patent Pendency to Grant 5.2 Traditional Total Pendency 2.3 (IV) Pending Application Inventory ( Backlog ) 2009 One Million Plus 2014 One Million Plus (V) 2000 Additional Patent Examiners (UPR) 2009 to

6 (VI) Patent Application Pendency (2014) U.S. PTO 20 Month Goal vs. Net Reality to Patent Grant (measured In years) Traditional Total Pendency Our goal is to reduce Traditional Total Pendency to an average off 20 months by (explained in the red-boxed text) Net Patent Pendency to Grant * (defined at the bottom of this page) Traditional Total Pendency (definition): Net Patent Pendency (definition): Time starting from the earliest priority date under 35 USC 119, 120 up until the date of grant. 4

7 (VII) Patent Office RCE Filing Estimates FY FY2014 US PTO Patent Production Model Projection (other than 2013) Actual Above Projection Projection (2013) Refilings other than RCE s FY RCE % Actual Refilings 2013 RCE 41 % All 46 % 5

8 APPENDIX: Extracts from the FY2010 and FY2014 PTO Annual Reports 6

9 Appendix: 46 % of New Applications are Refiles 46 % of All Patent Applications are Refiled Patent Applications: Why the Billion Dollars Per Year Budget Increase and Two Thousand New Examiners Can t Dent the 1.2 Million Patent Application Backlog FY2013 Patent Application Filings * New UPR Applications (including non-rce refilings) 402,338 Serialized UPR (Utility, Plant, Reissue excludes RCEs, Designs, and Reexams). New Design Applications 34,353 RCE s 164,106 Total New Applications plus RCE s 600,797 Total New UPR Applications (without designs) plus RCE s 566,444 Refiled Cases: RCE s 164,106 Continuations 63,723 Continuations-in-part 12,049 Divisionals 20,317 Total refiles (RCE s, 120 cont/cips/divisionals) 260, % Refiled UPR Cases as a Percentage of total UPRs: Total refiles (RCE s, 120 cont/cips/divisionals) = 260,195 = 46 % Total New UPR Applications plus RCE s 566,444 Source: The data was received from the Patent Office October 31, It is preliminary data for FY2013 which could be off by a very small number. [HCW October 31, 2013] 7