Patent Allowance Rate Falls (Again) to 41%
According to US Patent and Trademark (USPTO) Power Point presentation the allowance rate has again fallen to 41% by mid year 2009.
This continues the sad trend of falling allowance rates that started in 2002. Why has the allowance rate changed so dramatically in the last six years? Sometime early in this decade, the USPTO started to define the “quality” of examinations by the allowance rate. The USPTO tracks the allowance rate of every examiner and grades the quality of their examinations by their allowance rate. If one examiner’s allowance rate is higher than the average allowance rate of the group they work in, their examination of applications is considered to be of lower quality. If an examiner never allows any patent applications, they will be considered to have the highest quality examinations. This has created a perverse incentive for examiners. There has been some rumors that the new director, David Kappos, of the USPTO intends to change this, but the continued drop in the allowance rate is discouraging news.
Anti-Patent “Scholars” Fail to Carry Their Burden of Proof
We know that in all areas of economics where it has been tested private property rights encourage economic activity. We also know that when the government establishes incentives, it always results in more of the incentivized activity. We also know that countries with the strongest patent laws have the most innovation and the greatest technology diffusion and vice versa those countries with weak or non-existent patent laws have little or no innovation and little technology innovation. Despite this Mr. Kinsella and the anti-patent crowd ask us to believe that patents do not follow the normal rules of economics and logic. As Thomas Paine pointed out in his book The Age of Reason, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Mr. Kinsella and the anti-patent crowd have provided no evidence that patents harm innovation.
How to Build a Patent Portfolio that Dominates Your Marketplace
The first step in build a market dominating patent portfolio is to undertake a survey of the patent landscape in your marketplace. For more information on how to perform a prior art survey please see Competitive Analysis and Patent Portfolios . This analysis will show you where there are gaps in the prior art that can be exploited and also help stimulate your thinking about design options. Gary Boone, the inventor of the microcontroller, explains the advantage of surveying the prior art this way. “Most engineering design groups do not feel there is much to learn by reading patents. I feel that’s unfortunate, because there is a huge amount to learn from the accumulated five million issued patents, just picking up the U.S. patents alone.” Read more »
Innovation and the Obama Administration
The Obama administration has released a white paper outlining a strategy to encourage innovation and thereby stimulate the economy, entitled “A Strategy for American Innovation: Driving Towards Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs. ” According to President Obama, “The United States led the world’s economies in the 20th century because we led the world in innovation.” The first step in solving a problem is identifying the cause and the Obama administration has nailed it on the head. Read more »
In Defense of Patent Trolls
The term patent trolls is usually applied to companies that enforce patents that they are not practicing. These Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) include companies specifically organized for this purpose such as Intellectual Ventures. However, it also includes Universities and divisions of most large corporations such as IBM. Many of these corporations complain about NPEs. However, any consistent definition of a NPE (troll) would include these hypocrites. Read more »
Competitive Analysis and Patent Portfolios
The only asset that technology start-up companies have is their intellectual property. Creating a strong patent portfolio and understanding the competitive landscape are critical to maximizing the market value of technology companies. A strong patent portfolio is also the company’s best barrier to entry. Read more »
What the Inventor of Microcontroller Has to Say on Innovation and Patents
The IEEE oral history with Gary Boone, co-inventor of the microcontroller, has been lost for over decade but is now posted on the IEEE site. Please read the whole oral history. Mr. Boone has a number of interesting insights. For instance, he states that he invented microcontroller while at Texas Instruments because of boredom. He was working in a group designing custom Integrated Circuits (ICs). While designing these chips he began to feel “I’m tired of doing this. I’m working long hours. My family is not happy. I have to find a better way of doing this.” He also noticed that the basic requirements for all these projects were similar and this led to the idea that a general chip that was programmable could solve multiple customers’ requirements. He also discusses the resistance in the community to this innovation. Read more »
About
This blog is devoted to intellectual property innovation, patent law and innovation. The moderator, editor, and main 
author is Dale B. Halling. Mr. Halling is patent attorney and entrepreneur. As a patent attorney, Mr. Halling, has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies including, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Motorola, Ameritech, SBC, MCI, Cypress, and numerous technology start-ups. He has helped his clients obtain patents worldwide. Mr. Halling has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University, an MS in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas and a JD from St. Louis University. Mr. Halling is the author of the book “The Decline and Fall of the American Entrepreneur: How Little Known Laws are Killing Innovation.”
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