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Reducing global patent backlogs
The UK and US governments have agreed to develop an action plan for reducing patent processing backlogs in both countries' patent office.
Patent backlogs hinder the deployment of innovation and have clear adverse effects on the global economy. According to a study by London Economics, released on behalf of the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO), the cost to the global economy of the delay in processing patent applications may be as much as £7.65 billion each year.
Earlier this week David Lammy, UK Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, and David Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), committed both the UK-IPO and the USPTO to develop a plan to optimise reuse of work on patent applications that are filed jointly at the USPTO and the UK-IPO.
To this end, the offices will identify all areas of reutilisation potential and shall pursue measures designed to facilitate maximum reuse by building confidence in the work done by each office.
The agreement also commits the USPTO and UK-IPO to a follow on study into the effect of the backlog on competitors and to an ambitious work-sharing collaboration, with the goal of reusing each other’s work to the maximum extent possible. As part of this, the offices will look to establish an office-driven, as opposed to applicant-driven, system for improving availability and reuse of work results on commonly-filed applications.