U.S. outsourcing patent examination to Korea

[LisaM]

snip:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) entered into an agreement this week in which KIPO will act as an available international searching and examining authority for international applications filed with the USPTO under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The agreement will allow applicants additional flexibility to choose a given international authority based on the technology disclosed in the international application, speed of services provided and cost of obtaining searches and examination of international applications. The agreement goes into effect January 1, 2006


http://www.uspto.gov/

The commissioner of Patents and Trademarks is a Jeb Bush crony.

Will there be ANY jobs left in the U.S. in a few years?

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Well that should take care of any trade secret problems...

[aquart]

2. yes, indeedy. asian countries never do knockoffs.

or breach copyright. or anything like that.

ARE THEY INSANE????

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Bonkers and Batty. I can't believe how stupid we've become as

a nation. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[LisaM]

3. I know. They are very cavalier about it.

It's disturbing to me that they are doing this. There are all kinds of sensitive patents that I would think we don't want in the hands of a foreign government. I simply do not understand this. Moreover, it's received exactly zero news coverage.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. American ingenuity is about to get hijacked.

[MrMonk]

4. No secrets are involved

The USPTO is allowing applicants the option to select KIPO as the searcher/examiner of their international patent applications. Those applications are made public early in the examination process, and are available worldwide. I think that it's a good idea; the USPTO backlog is some 2-3 years deep. This is not really outsourcing; it's the applicant's choice as to whether the application is examined in the US or Korea (or Germany or Japan).

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. This kind of stuff should stay stateside.

My daughter plays in a competitive sport and I don't even like it when she goes to the tournament trainer for a stretch because the other team can see what he's working on. If it's her back, lo and behold, players land on her back. If it's her ankle, lo and behold, her ankles get swiped from behind.

You have to play an extremely competitive sport to know why you don't want to show your hand before you have to. Even researching certain patents in certain competitive areas can give your competitors an idea of what you're working on, and then they can run in early patents to beat you to the draw.

[MrMonk]

15. There are still ways to keep applications secret.

But they limit one's flexibility in obtaining foreign patents.

Searches shouldn't be a problem, since they typically are based on public records and are performed in confidence.

[Deja Q]

19. So should our SSN and other private data.

But they're in India and everywhere else to keep credit checks free. :eyes: A fuckin' automated process does that, there is no cost - regardless.

[LisaM]

8. I thought that the entire patent was not disclosed during examination

You can access some of the information during application, but I don't think all the details are publicly available while it is pending.

[MrMonk]

14. Everything is published nowadays.

U.S. has some exceptions: provisional applications (some people call them "placeholders") are kept confidential until a related conventional patent application has been published; an applicant can request that the application be kept confidential (this raises problems if foreign applications are to be filed); or the gov't can elect to keep the application (and/or the resulting patent) confidential if the invention affects national security. Patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (an independently managed multilateral program) must be published. The PCT provides a simplified route to obtaining patent protection in a number of countries from a single application. AFAIK, the USPTO/KIPO agreement only extends to the examination of such applications, and only if they have been received in the USPTO (as opposed, say, to the European Patent Office or the Japanese Patent Office), and then only if the applicant requests it. If they don't want their application published, they shouldn't go the PCT route.

[LisaM]

17. Gotcha

I am familiar with trademarks, but very few international applications have as yet been processed at the PTO and trademarks have always been publicly available.

I still do not like the precedent of other intellectual property offices examining U.S. patents. It seems like the beginning of a slippery slope.

[LisaM]

9. Here's another clue - Examiners are leaving in droves

Poor work conditions.

http://www.fcw.com/article89658-07-25-05-Print

[MrMonk]

11. True

The pay is crap, and the PTO keeps ratcheting up the pressure to meet productivity requirements rather than giving the applications a thorough examination.

On edit: This is not just a W thing. Carter got the ball rolling in this direction, and the situation inside the PTO has been getting progressively worse.

There is also a high demand for former patent examiners, especially if they have, or expect to receive, a law degree.

[LisaM]

13. That's true, but I don't trust Dudas

He was involved in that whole Jeb Bush/Bacardi trademark interference, where they actually got a trademark examiner dismissed from an infringement action after Bacardi donated 50K to the Florida GOP. Dudas was not the commissioner at the time, but got the job not too long after.

[MrMonk]

16. True, also.

It may also be worth noting that certain obstacles to reform vanished, and considerable money was freed up, soon after his appointment was announced. One of his "triumphs" was that PTO revenues are no longer zeroed out at the end of the fiscal year.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Thanks. This tells me a lot:

"Some attribute the exodus to a culture of poor employee/ manager relations that a recent Government Accountability Office report highlights"

So, hey, let's get rid of the managers? I don't think it will be too difficult to convince DUers that most poor working conditions can be resolved by removing a modern style manager. But if we don't get to the bottom of this, then it will be far too easy to resolve low productivity issues by outsourcing our jobs. Pay raises and better managers is what we really need.

[Stephanie]

10. Outsourcing the U.S. government

incredible

[Deja Q]

18. More national security down the drain. Great.