The PTO issued a press release last week that seeks to revise patent examiner performance standards for the first time in 25 years. The press release is short on specifics, but seeks to better align examiner performance standards with agency needs in order to reduce application pendency and the backlog.
Patent examiners are evaluated by the Performance Appraisal Plan (PAP). Some proposed changes include:
• Establishing a “Stakeholder Interaction” element that emphasizes routine use of interviews to facilitate compact prosecution and timely responsiveness to requests for personal interviews;
• Revising the performance standards to include a single quality element for all examiners—increasing the focus on examination quality and improving the transparency of how quality is measured; and
• Revamping the workflow element to provide examiners more opportunities to use their professional discretion to manage their own workflow.
Proposed changes will be voted on by the examiner’s union in July and could be implemented in FY2011.
Changing how examiners are evaluated and how they manage their work load is yet another proposed change to patent procedure at the PTO by new Director David Kappos. Past attempts at changes have met with resistance from the examiner’s union. Hopefully, the union will work together with the management to continue to work to reduce pendency and backlog. Without more specifics, it is difficult to comment on the proposed changes.
