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September 17, 2011

Impoverishing

As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in this hypothetical land of opportunity, there is one constant: politicians dissemble. The America Invents Act floated into law as a pseudo-jobs-creation bill. It will do no such thing. PTO fees go up 15% immediately, which only has a telling negative effect on the inventors who actually create jobs (small companies). Under a government-mandated spending freeze that goes into effect October 1, the PTO cannot spend whatever bonus it may procure. And the new Act mandates programs that require more from the patent office at the appeals level, which means cutbacks for examiners, which means the examination backlog will further stack up. The administration once spoke of "millions" of new jobs being created by passage of the Act, recently pared to "200,000." The reality will be like the Iraq War, which was sold as paying for itself (by oil revenues) - the America Invents Act will hurt those who can least afford it, and will cost this country jobs.

Posted by Patent Hawk at September 17, 2011 9:03 AM | The Patent System