Big Business In Patents

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has started a hiring blitz that will bring 1,200 new jobs and for the next three. this year to its sprawling complex in Alexandria

From an article by Senior Staff Reporter Joe Coombs in the Washington Business Journal the PTO has moved to its new digs, a quant 2.5 square mile facility, in 2005 and is running out of room.

John Doll, the PTO's commissioner of patents says:

"We have moved from a manufacturing society to an idea, or intellectual society… The surge in applications is due to the surge in innovation in America."

Last year which ended last September PTO received a record 440,000 patent applications. That doesn't include a backlog of 701,000 applications that have yet to be handled by examiners.

Since most new patent applications are centered on electrical systems, including mechanisms that support cell phones, satellite communications, interactive videos and other avenues of communication, patents can take from seven months to over six years.

There was no reference how many of these applications were from outside the United States. According to FreshPatents.com 36.8% of patent applications are of foreign origin.