Backlog, Quotas Overwhelm Patent Examiners

But whittling down the backlog of 760,000 pending applications is difficult when there is a high level of attrition in the patent office workforce (many examiners are engineers and science and technical professionals).

In the 2002-2006 period studied by the GAO, about 70 percent of the 1,643 examiners who left had been with the agency for less than five years, and nearly 33 percent had been there for less than one year.

Because it takes from four to six years of experience for patent examiners to become fully proficient, the staff churning results in "years upon years of wasted training," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who requested the GAO study.

"PTO has been unable to effectively combat its brain drain," Davis said.

The GAO review found that agency management and examiners have different opinions of what is causing the turnover.

In the GAO survey of patent examiners, 67 percent said production quotas were among the top reasons they would consider leaving.

The GAO estimated that 62 percent of examiners are dissatisfied with the time allowed by the agency to meet production goals, and 50 percent are dissatisfied with the methods used to calculate the goals. (Representatives of the Patent Office Professional Association, the union that represents examiners, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.)

The agency's managers, in contrast, said examiners leave the agency because of the nature of the work, the high cost of living in the Washington area and because of the stiff competition to get into the area's graduate and postgraduate programs. Many examiners come to the agency out of college and are looking to polish their r¿sum¿s before moving on to other jobs, the managers said.

To retain employees, the agency offers "special pay rates" above regular federal scales, pays recruitment and retention bonuses, offers flexible work schedules, a telecommuting program and reimbursement for law school. At its Alexandria building, the agency provides examiners with a fitness center and a child-care center.

Patent officials are looking at hiring back retirees to work on the patent backlog and at revising "duty station" requirements so the agency can expand into a nationwide workforce.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.