The patent office is the only U.S. government agency that receives no taxpayer money, being entirely funded by "patron" fees. Until fiscal 2004, Congress robbed the patent office funds to piss it away elsewhere. The federal circuit ruled in the summer of 2005 that constitutionally copasetic. From 1992 to 2004, about $750 million that could have gone to patent quality was "diverted," at a time when patent filings exploded, with a backlog of more than 800,000 applications. The average pendency is now over two and a half years, and it has taken up to 12 years for a patent grant.

President Bush changed tack in 2005, and the PTO has been able to keep its takings. Patent fees have been jacked as well. The extra funds have gone to hiring examiners, at a rate of 1,000 to 1,200 per year. The goal is to have 6,000 examiners by the end of 2007. Steve Pinkos, USPTO director: "By hiring these folks we're able to stem that astronomical growth and hopefully some day reduce that dependency." The agency has not been bubblingly optimistic that it can hire its way out of the pedency dilemma, as examiner wages aren't market competitive, and so agency management has floated a few shennaigans, including limiting applications, both by number of continuations and number of claims examined, as a pendency quagmire exit strategy.