Joint USPTO and PPAC Quality Task Force

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has adopted new, more comprehensive procedures for measuring the quality of patent examination. These new measurement procedures were crafted by a joint USPTO-Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) Task Force with extensive input from the intellectual property community and the public.

Previously, the USPTO measured quality through two measurements--the final rejection and allowance compliance rate (the correctness of the examiners overall determination of the patentability of the claims) and the in-process compliance rate (the quality of the actions taken during the course of examination). Because these measurements focus on such limited factors of quality, they have long been considered useful, yet insufficient, measurements.

The new procedures measure seven diverse aspects of the examination process to form a more comprehensive composite quality metric. A detailed description of these procedures is available below in the Adoption of Metrics for the Enhancement of Patent Quality Fiscal Year 2011 document.

Composite Quality Metric

Federal Register and Official Gazette Notices

  • Notice of Roundtables and Request for Comments on Enhancement in the Quality of Patents and on United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Quality Metrics, 75 FR 22120 (April 27, 2010)
  • Extension of Period for Comments on Enhancement in the Quality of Patents, published in the Federal Register at 75 Fed. Reg. 5040 (February 1, 2010), 1351 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 203 (February 23, 2010)
  • Request for Comments on Enhancement in the Quality of Patents, 74 Fed. Reg. 65093 (December 9, 2009), 1350 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 46 (January 5, 2010)

Documents and Related Information

Public Roundtables

  • May 18, 2010, Public Roundtable Webcast: Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office David Kappos and Marc Adler, member of the Patent Public Advisory Committee, acted as moderators for the roundtable on Tuesday, May 18. The public is encouraged to submit written comments on any issue raised. The event was held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT at the USPTO in the Madison Auditorium on the concourse level of the Madison Building, which is located at 500 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia. A webcast of the event can be viewed at (the webcast contains minor transcription errors):

https://uspto.connectsolutions.com/p29255780

  • May 10, 2010, Public Roundtable: Commissioner for Patents Robert Stoll and Marc Adler, member of the Patent Public Advisory Committee, acted as moderators for the roundtable on Monday, May 10. The event was held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. PDT at the Los Angeles Public Library--Central Library, which is located at 630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles, California.