UK and US Plan To Reduce Patent Backlog

The UK and US governments agreed to develop an action plan for reducing patent processing backlogs in both countries' patent office.

Patent backlogs hinder the deployment of innovation and have clear adverse effects on the global economy.

David Lammy, UK Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property and David Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), committed both the UK-IPO and the USPTO to develop a plan to optimise reuse of work on patent applications that are filed jointly at the USPTO and the UK-IPO. To this end, the offices will identify all areas of reutilization potential by the end of this calendar year, and shall pursue measures designed to facilitate maximum reuse by building confidence in the work done by each office.

Source: UKIPO