Surge in Patents creating More Patent Patent Office Jobs
As I reported in yesterday’s post ‘New Patent Appeals Need to be Clear and Precise’, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) is presently experiencing a large increase in the number of ex parte appeals. From 3,349 appeals in FY 2006, the Board expects the figures to cross 4000 and 5000 in FY 2007 and FY 2008 respectively.
The patent office is not only having to create new rules to help the Board handle this increase in appeals, they are also hiring more people to handle the increasing pressure. An article in Law.com quotes a patent office spokesperson to highlight this phenomenon:
A spokesman for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had no exact figures for medical-method patents, confirming only that "because we are seeing an increase in medical/ surgical method applications," more hires are being sought.
https://www.medicaldevicepatentattorneys.com/2007/07/surge-in-patents-creating-more-patent-patent-office-jobs/trackback/
