Can the Patent Office Be Fixed?

Details

Author(s):
Publish Date:
2011
Publication Title:
Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform
Publisher:
Kauffman
Place of Publication:
Kansas City, MO
Format:
Book, Section
Citation(s):
  • Mark A. Lemley, Can the Patent Office Be Fixed?, in Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform, The Kauffman Task Force on Law, Innovation, and Growth, Kansas City, MO: Kauffman, 2011.
Related Organization(s):

Abstract

How can we fix the PTO, allowing examiners to effectively distinguish between patentable and unpatentable inventions, without slowing the process to a crawl or wasting a bunch of money? This essay reviews the recent literature and considers a number of proposals and their problems. It concludes that we can make the PTO better, but are unlikely to solve the problem of bad patents.