Proposed Patent Examiner Legal Training A principal responsibility of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is to properly administer the patent laws. In this respect, it is imperative that PTO issue valid patents in a timely manner. To achieve this goal, PTO must recruit, train and retain a high caliber diverse workforce. By so doing, PTO helps ensure a high quality examination. The PTO currently provides about 200 hours of training to its new patent examiners on examination practice and procedures in its Patent Academy. In addition, the Patent Academy offers a wide range of additional training programs in technology, automation and patent law. However, much of this training is provided by in house staff using training materials developed internally. Moreover, examiners receive extensive on the job training on examination practices and procedures by their immediate supervisor in their respective patent examining groups. Additionally, a small number of patent examiners participate in the Law School Training Assistance Program (LSTAP) where examiners admitted into evening law school programs pursue Juris Doctor or other law degress, and have their tuition and books for job related courses paid for by the PTO. The PTO has held numerous customer focus sessions throughout the United States. A consistent message which PTO's customers have been sending is that PTO needs to raise the level of legal competency of the Patent Examining Corps. In an effort to provide examiners with more law school type legal training and to improve their legal competency, the PTO is considering establishing a Juris Masters (JM) Program for patent professionals. This JM Program would be offered to all non-lawyer examiners and non-law school students and would consist of courses in patent practice and procedures taught using law school style techniques during their first few years in the PTO. Courses conducted during Office hours would replace existing Patent Academy curricula and would focus principally on patent law practice and procedure. Additionally, other traditional law school courses would be part of an after hours curriculum. All of the courses would be taught on-site in the PTO Academy by professors from law schools, who would be providing these courses on a contract basis. The number of courses and credit hours offered would be about half the number required to receive a Juris Doctor degree. PTO would award a legal training proficiency certificate to examiners who successfully complete the JM program. Prior to PTO's preparing a statement of work for a request for proposals for law schools to respond to such a program, PTO requests comments from our customers and other members of the patent legal academic community on the JM Program. Those interested in presenting written comments on this subject may mail their comments to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington D.C. 20231, marked to the attention of Manuel A. Antonakas, Office of the Deputy Assitant Commissioner for Patent Policy and Projects, or send them by facsimile transmission to (703) 308-5481. Written comments should include the following information: -Name and affiliation of the individual responding; -An indication of whether comments offered represent views of the respondent's organization or are the respon- dent's personal views; and -If applicable, information on the respondent's organiza- tion, including the type of organization (e.g., business, trade group, university, non-profit organization). March 20, 1995 LAWRENCE J. GOFFNEY Assistant Commissioner for Patents