Patents FY2014 - United States Patent and Trademark Office

November 3, 2014

The Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC or Committee) thanks the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office), and in particular, Deputy Under Secretary Michelle Lee, for the assistance and positive atmosphere enabling our committee to interact effectively and efficiently with the employees of the USPTO. Throughout the year, all personnel of the USPTO provided unfettered access to the information requested by the PPAC in the role as advisors. They regularly provided detailed information allowing us to better understand the complex issues facing the USPTO and permitted constructive discussions of options, constraints, and upcoming initiatives for our consideration and comment. The PPAC thanks all of the employees of the USPTO for their assistance over this year and for the efforts made by all to improve the system and provide a world class patent office. The leadership at the USPTO has consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence throughout all of our interactions and we commend their efforts to continually provide better service, quality, information, and interactions with the public. This positive atmosphere translated to more productive interactions with the PPAC and the public in numerous venues. The USPTO continued to demonstrate transparency by holding public meetings and issuing requests for comment on various proposed changes, actions which can only provide better results. We are grateful to the management of the USPTO and the examiners’ union, POPA, for the assistance we have received in fulfilling our roles as members of the PPAC. We look forward to our continuing interactions with the USPTO. FY 2014 was a year of recovery from the budget cuts stemming from sequestration in FY 2013, resulting in delays to projects and improvements. The USPTO has made excellent progress during FY 2014, accomplishing improvements in a number of areas, largely due to increased access to fees compared to FY 2013. Sequestration in FY 2013 had necessitated significant cuts in the IT initiatives and hiring, but during FY 2014, these projects were begun again to continue the critical IT initiatives and pendency reduction efforts targeted by the USPTO.

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