PTO Won't Tolerate Telework Abuses, Director Tells House IP Subcommittee
House IP Subcommittee members alternated during a Tuesday hearing between criticizing the Patent and Trademark Office for employees' fraudulent billing for almost 290,000 hours of work in late 2014 and 2015 that they didn't perform, and exploring possible elements of a patent law revamp. House IP framed the hearing as focusing on a variety of PTO oversight issues, but homed in on a Department of Commerce inspector general August report on PTO employees' fraudulent billing practices, which netted those staffers a collective $18.3 million in pay for the non-worked hours. Had PTO employees worked all of the hours they claimed, they would have been able to reduce the office's backlog of patent applications by almost 16,000 cases, the IG said (see 1609060064).
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“I am deeply troubled by the” Commerce IG report's findings about PTO employees' fraudulent billing practices, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.: “The amount of wasted man-hours that could have been spent reducing the patent backlog is astounding, not to mention the millions of taxpayer dollars that were wasted paying” PTO employees “for work they were not doing.” House IP Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he's also concerned about the IG report's implications, but said only a small number of PTO staffers engaged in fraudulent billing.
The agency won't tolerate telework abuse, Director Michelle Lee told committee members. The office is implementing the Commerce IG's recommendations for preventing further fraudulent work billing claims, including requiring all PTO supervisors and teleworkers to remain logged into the office's IT system during working hours and to use instant messaging and other tools to indicate workers are present at their work stations, Lee said. PTO also is training supervisors to use online tools to review employees' production and timeliness performance to quickly indicate changes in work attendance, Lee said.
Issa urged the agency to continue to improve the quality of its patent examinations to avoid “rubber stamping” patents. Patent quality and examination quality are equally important to PTO success, because the office shouldn't “be in the business of just granting patents” without sufficient oversight, Goodlatte said. PTO is on track to receive more than 600,000 new patent applications total in 2016, and reduced its application backlog to around 550,000 cases from its 2009 backlog high of more than 750,000 cases, Lee said. PTO is continuing to improve its examiner training and outreach to stakeholders on patent quality issues, she said.
CTA agrees with recent GAO recommendations for internal PTO improvements to patent examination quality, said President Gary Shapiro in a statement. PTO “should develop a clear and consistent definition of quality for use when granting patents,” Shapiro said. Internal PTO changes are a “welcome first step toward deterring patent trolls” but Congress should “swiftly pass legislation that includes heightened pleading standards, reasonable discovery limitations, clear fee recovery guidelines, customer stay protections and venue reform,” Shapiro said.