As the effects of his recent appointment continue to spread across the organisation, Kappos told this year's Independent Inventors Conference on 5 November of the need for the USPTO to maintain strong ties with small-scale innovators.
In his keynote address to the conference at the USPTO's headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, Kappos said: 'In the past few weeks, we've worked with our patent examiner union [the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA)] to design a programme that is specifically designed to accelerate the patent process for independent inventors. This backlog-reduction pilot project will be made available only to small and medium-sized entities and will give you the opportunity to receive special, accelerated status for a new application if you abandon a pending, unexamined application.
'The programme allows independent inventors and innovators to advance an application in the queue by swapping out one they are willing to abandon,' he added. 'You are in a better position to help prioritise our workload – so we want you to tell us what matters most to you. We believe this gives you the option to accelerate protection for your innovation, while also reducing the overall backlog.'
Kappos admitted that the USPTO was 'struggling' and 'not working efficiently for inventors', whether they were based in home garages or professional research facilities. However, he signalled a determination to correct flaws and inefficiencies in the USPTO's processes, and underlined his intention to assist America's community of small inventors.
'Our goal is to provide members of the innovation community with the tools they need to put their ideas to work,' Kappos told the conference, 'and to ensure that independent inventors receive strong IP protection for their inventions. Our goal is to help bring your innovative goods and services to market; to build economic opportunity; and to maintain America's place as the innovation capital of the world.'
Turning his attention to the patent reform efforts rumbling through Congress, Kappos said that he was keen to address inventors' concerns and listen to their ideas about how to make the patent system work. 'I want you to know that [US Commerce Secretary] Locke has specifically asked me to arrange for him to hear [opinions] from independent inventors and universities on a sustained basis, and we are already working on doing that.
'We are committed to ensuring a level playing field for all those who seek the protection the law provides as an incentive to foster and promote innovation. The challenges ahead are extraordinary, and I know that many of you are concerned with the prospect of rising fees and pendency, and the potential changes to our post-grant review and first-to-invent systems.'
To address these issues, Kappos said that the USPTO is considering ways of offering additional discounts to small entities, and has begun a top-down strategic review of the examination process to tackle pendency. He also backed the new approach to filing, describing it as 'first-inventor-to-file' – a choice of words designed to allay concerns that the system could ignore the timeline and talent behind a product's creation.
The director also restated his admiration for the inventors behind the briefcase battery unit, recently awarded the USPTO's 600,000th design patent, and reminded the conference of the unit's small business origins. 'It's my mission,' said Kappos, 'to create a USPTO worthy of serving America's greatest natural resource – inventors and innovators like you.'
