United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1996-07-15 monographic deposited born digital 46 p. GA 1.13:RCED-96-190 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190 P0b002ee18039f4d4 f:rc96190 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190 RCED-96-190 Patents Information processing operations Statutory limitation Patent law Statistical methods Statistical data Productivity Human resources utilization Financial management Foreign patents Europe Japan Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO) operations, focusing on: (1) patent pendency; (2) PTO allocation of resources among its patent and trademark processes, dissemination of information, and executive direction and administration; and (3) a comparison of PTO workload and examination processes with those of other industrialized nations.<p/>GAO found that: (1) PTO computation and reporting of patent pendency is inadequate; (2) PTO does not provide separate statistics on patents issued, abandoned applications, or applications still in process in its pendency calculations; (3) PTO does not report variations in pendency among individual applications or measure pendency from the original filing date in accordance with patent law; (4) PTO does not determine how much of pendency is due to the patent examination process or applicant delays; (5) applicant delays may constitute as much as 36 percent of the average pendency period; (6) PTO has consistently committed most of its resources to its patent process, which in fiscal year (FY) 1995 constituted three-quarters of its funds and staff; (7) funding and staffing for the trademark process, executive direction and administration, and information dissemination also increased from FY 1986 through FY 1995; (8) during the same period, the PTO patent workload increased significantly while average pendency decreased by about 2.9 months; (9) it is difficult to compare the PTO patent examination process and pendency with those of Japan and Europe, which are the other two primary patent-granting entities; (10) Japan and Europe require an additional request for examination before starting the examination process, which may delay examination for months or years after an applicant's initial filing; and (11) Japan and Europe include applications in-process in their pendency computations. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190.pdf GAO/RCED-96-190 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-96-190 Letter Report GAO/RCED-96-190; Intellectual Property: Enhancements Needed in Computing and Reporting Patent Examination Statistics; Patents Information processing operations Statutory limitation Patent law Statistical methods Statistical data Productivity Human resources utilization Financial management Foreign patents Europe Japan Public Law 103-465