Mr. Godici's talk was on obtaining high quality patents and producing them in a timely manner. From the beginning he invited questions from the audience and our MPLA members readily came forward with many questions which he answered.

Quality

On quality he noted they have the continuing problem of integrating new examiners into the system. Last year there were about 450 new examiners and this year there will be about 688. He expects they will achieve this high hiring goal since they already have 375 on board.

The PTO now has about 3300 examiners and they will have 3500 by the end of the year. The total number of employees is 6500. There were 330,000 applications filed last year which was a 12% increase over the prior year and which in turn was a 12% increase over the year before. The number of patents issue last fiscal year was about 170,000. The PTO takes in revenues of over one billion dollars.

They are also teaching examiners how to do electronic searching. In the area of gene sequencing searches, for example, you do it on a computer in a database and not with the paper files.

Part of the quality problem in the extent of the search is that an examiner is only given a total of 20 hours per application and the applications are becoming more complex. He said the PTO needs help from the attorneys in pointing out the important prior art. Only about ½ of the applications come with an IDS.

Another way to improve quality would be to have post grant review in an effective manner that works for everyone. Currently there are only a few hundred requests for reexamination per year. A better review process is needed and it must be one that is not too costly.

On a question about the delay at the Board of Appeals he noted the average decision is now down to 15 months. One of the factors in this decrease is the mandatory appeal conferences required in the group before a case can be sent to the Board.

On a question regarding the status of 102(e) as a result of the recent patent law change, he noted there is a Technical Correction bill which has been reduced in content and which may be attached soon to a Justice Dept. bill for passage.

Timeliness

Currently the time to first Office Action averages 14 months. However, in some electrical areas it can be 24-26 months. That is why about 500 of the 688 new examiners being hired will have electrical backgrounds.

One helpful factor in maintaining the 14 month pendency is that the examiner attrition rate is decreasing. It used to be 14% per year but now it is 6-7%.

The Office goal is to obtain an 18 month pendency. This will be a challenge. One way to maximize the examiner's time on examining applications will be to contract out the classification of patents function. This is the kind of non-examining work which examiners must now perform.

For international cases where the same disclosure is filed in many countries, the PTO would like to be able to use the searches made in these other countries. This would be a way to leverage the work of the other Patent Offices. The PTO is considering using rule changes and legislation to do this.

Mail sent to the PTO's Washington DC mail address was process by the Brentwood Post Office where the anthrax contamination occurred. Mail from there had been sent by truck to a facility the midwest were the mail was given a radiation treatment. This has resulted in considerable delay. He noted that Express Mail is not given the radiation treatment since they have a 2 day delivery. 

Also the PTO is using an alternative Post Office Address  in Crystal City Virginia that does not go through radiation treatment. This address is recommended for filing disks with gene sequence data. 

The move to the new Caryle location in Alexandria is proceeding with a foundation having been poured for at least one of the 5 buildings. The PTO will be moving down as each of the building is completed. The first move is scheduled for Nov.- Dec. 2003. The entire move should take 12-13 months. The new location will be between two metro stops - - the King Street metro station and the Eisenhower Ave. metro station . He believes a tunnel will be built under Duke Street from the King Street station which will come out near the new PTO buildings. The 5 buildings will form a u-shape and will have a cost per square foot which is less than at Crystal City.

In response to a question on whether patent examiners could work from home, he said this is now taking place under a trial program. One problem involves the delays in the phone company installing DSL lines to the examiners' homes. The participating examiners will be allowed one day a week to stay at home and work. A reason for just one day is because only experienced examiners can take part in the program and they are needed in the Office to train new examiners.

For the electronic filing program a revised version of the software (ePAVE 4.0)  was issued in Nov./Dec. 2001. They are now contracting out for production of a second generation software which will be more user friendly. There is no delivery date yet; it is still in progress. 

On the Congressional fee diversion for the next fiscal year is appears $160-180 million will be diverted.

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This report is based on notes taken by Ed Cabic. Some of this information can be found in Mr. Godici's "From the Director's Desk" column in Pulse Newsletter December 2001 .