Comment Re:Not unique to pharmaceuticals. (Score 1) 381
I don't think hiring experts would solve the problem. Because there's such a backlog of patent applications, the PTO evaluates employee performance based solely on how many cases a patent examiner can churn out every biweek. Quality of work is not a factor. When I worked at the PTO, the "best" patent examiners were the ones that were producing the lowest quality work.
Also, the PTO would have a hard time getting experts to do that work. They have a hard enough time holding on to the employees they have now (mostly entry-level engineers like I was). If an entry-level engineer gets fed up with such tedious and unchallenging work, someone who's been in the field for years is not going to put up with it either. When I worked there it was always the guys with PhDs that were out of there the fastest.
Also, the PTO would have a hard time getting experts to do that work. They have a hard enough time holding on to the employees they have now (mostly entry-level engineers like I was). If an entry-level engineer gets fed up with such tedious and unchallenging work, someone who's been in the field for years is not going to put up with it either. When I worked there it was always the guys with PhDs that were out of there the fastest.
