Nies Lecture Number
Fourteenth
Presentation Date
2011
Abstract
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) faces primarily two problems in promoting innovation policy. On the one hand, the USPTO must contend with a backlog of around 700,000 patent applications that have not yet been examined. This may result in three- and five-year waits before the USPTO renders a decision on an application, which may prove detrimental for certain sectors in which technology develops at a more rapid pace, such as the software industry. On the other hand, the USPTO has granted a not insignificant number of patents of questionable validity and quality.
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Recommended Citation
Lemley, Mark, "Can the Patent Office be Fixed" (2011). The Honorable Helen Wilson Nies Memorial Lecture. 3.
https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/nies_lectures/3
