USPTO defends ‘secret’ patent system
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has defended its system for reviewing “sensitive” patent applications following claims that it was stalling innovation.
In a statement, the USPTO told WIPR that its Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS) was a practical tool that was “not designed in any way” to delay applications.
Its defence comes after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton revealed that patents put into the system must be approved by between three to nine people, rather than one or two, and can be delayed for years.
The FoI also showed that applicants are not informed when their applications are transferred to SAWS, and that the USPTO refused to reveal the identities of applications in the programme.
Adam Charnes, partner at the Kilpatrick’s Washington, DC office, told WIPR last week that he was not aware of any agency that has “a secret component to an otherwise public process”.
But the office said it has no reason to reveal the identities or to inform an applicant about “which quality assurance checks” may have been used, as “every patent application … is held to the same standard”.
The USPTO added: “By bringing an additional quality assurance check to a very small number of pending patent applications, the quality assurance programme ensures that those applications that could potentially be of strong public interest are properly issued or properly denied.
“The USPTO has no incentive to stall any patent applications, and in fact a core part of our mission is to continually reduce the amount of time it takes for applicants to receive decisions on their applications.”
