USPTO ends controversial SAWS programme
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ended its controversial “sensitive” patent examination system, which had been criticised by at least one law firm.
In a statement on its website, the office said it was ending the Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS) after “careful consideration” and said it had provided “minimal benefit”.
Introduced in 1994, SAWS was designed to “bring an additional assurance check” to what the USPTO felt were “sensitive” patent applications.
Applications that went through SAWS were subject to scrutiny from more patent examiners than usual.
Between three and nine examiners assessed SAWS-designated applications, as opposed to the usual number of one or two examiners for regular applications.
Applicants were not informed if their application was identified as “sensitive”, meaning they could experience delays in their patent being granted for reasons unknown to them.
The workings of the programme were brought to light only in December last year after law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton submitted a freedom of information request (FOI) to the USPTO, asking for further details on SAWS.
In response, the USPTO revealed the criteria used to judge whether an application was “sensitive”, but refused to hand over details of patent applications that had gone through the system, despite repeated requests from the law firm.
Speaking to WIPR, Kate Gaudry, associate at Kilpatrick Townsend, said these denials had only “confirmed the secretive nature of the SAWS review”.
“To our disappointment, the USPTO continues to deny requests to identify SAWS applications, as indicated by a denial received as recently as March 3,” she added.
In January, the USPTO started a review of the programme’s role.
In a report about its review, published on March 2, the USPTO said that on average only 0.04% of patent applications were subject to SAWS in a typical month.
The report said: “Only a small number of applications examined over the last 20 years were ever referred to the SAWS programme.
“Upon careful consideration, the USPTO has concluded that the SAWS programme has only been marginally utilised and provides minimal benefit. After completing the review, the USPTO has decided to retire this programme,” the office concluded.
Gaudry welcomed the decision to stop SAWS.
“I am very pleased that the USPTO has taken a fresh look at the SAWS programme in general by re-evaluating its intended purpose and whether the programme’s implementation is achieving that,” she said.
