“Nearly nine months into his tenure as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, David Kappos said Monday [May 3, 2010] that he thinks the agency still is stifling millions of potential jobs [following the financial meltdown triggered in 2008] because of its inability to keep pace with the volume and complexity of the applications it receives.

While he lacks empirical data on the number of jobs that ‘our country’s innovation agency’ impedes because of its inability to keep up, Kappos said his instincts tell him the number runs into the millions.

‘Hundreds of thousands of groundbreaking innovations that are sitting on the shelf literally waiting to be examined – jobs not being created, lifesaving drugs not going to the marketplace, companies not being funded, businesses not being formed – there’s really not any good news in any of this,’ Kappos said during a panel discussion at the annual trade show of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

What’s more, innovation has become the main driver of economic growth, Kappos said. The agency’s backlog impedes economic advancement at a time when China and the rest of Asia are spending unprecedented sums on research and development, challenging the United States in areas of technology innovation where it once reigned supreme, he said.”

“Backlog of patents still stifling potential jobs, director says,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 3, 2010)

Cynthia