We’ve heard over and over again how painfully slow the U.S. Patent Office is. I was reminded again today as I was copied on an email to a patent attorney regarding an application we sent in THREE YEARS AGO. What the hell? This wasn’t even a very complex product that we are dealing with here. It’s a patch cord…a patch cord! How tough is it to examine past art (which we already did ourselves AND had patent attorneys work on) and determine if this simple product is patentable or not?

The discouraging thing is that in this day and time, business and technology moves along at a MUCH faster pace than it did even just a couple decades ago. Our product could be obsolete by the time this patent gets granted. Every month that goes by is tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of missed revenue.

We’ve heard of the USPTO reforms that are supposed to be taking place. When will we actually see these changes? How many millions of dollars must be lost before the USPTO becomes an efficient machine? The economy of the U.S. would benefit from these changes and the U.S. would also become competitive in the international marketplace. Until these changes take place, thousands of good ideas will fail to make it to market at a relevant time, businesses will fail to have a chance to succeed, and our competitive advantage will continue to deteriorate.