“Former USPTO Deputy Director Derrick Brent recently wrote that the Office is ‘now at an inflection point that requires us to build examination capacity to achieve our long-term pendency goals.’”
“前USPTO副主任德里克·布伦特(Derrick Brent)最近写道，该办公室‘现在正处于一个转折点，需要我们建立检查能力，以实现我们的长期专利审查周期管控目标。’"
Donald Trump’s many executive actions on day one of his presidency included implementing a hiring freeze across the federal government. The order put hiring on hold for all Federal civilian employees, until such time as “the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Director of OPM and the Administrator of the United States DOGE Service (USDS), shall submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.”
唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)在就任总统的第一天采取了许多行政措施，包括在整个联邦政府实施招聘冻结。该命令暂停对所有联邦文职雇员的招聘，直到“管理和预算办公室(OMB)主任与OPM主任和美国政府效能部(USDS)部长协商，提交一份通过提高效率和减员来减少联邦政府劳动力规模的计划。”
The structure of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is being challenged in court, with complaints filed on January 20 by worker advocacy groups and private citizens. The DOGE was slated to be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, but Ramaswamy was reportedly asked to leave this week.
政府效率部(DOGE)的结构在法庭上受到挑战，工人权益团体和公民个人于1月20日提出了投诉。执政官计划由埃隆·马斯克和维韦克·拉马斯瓦米管理，但据报道，拉马斯瓦米本周被要求离开。
What this all means for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which is still dealing with a patent backlog, is unclear. The current backlog stands at 826,736 unexamined applications/ 26.1 months total pendency for patents. The April 2024 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees predicted the backlog to increase to 820,200 by FY 2026 before decreasing to 780,000 by FY 2029.
对于仍在处理专利积压的美国专利商标局(USPTO)来说，这一切意味着什么还不清楚。目前积压了826，736份未审查的申请/ 26.1个月的专利未决期。2024年4月关于设定和调整专利费用的拟议规则制定(NPRM)的通知预测，到2026财年，积压将增加到820，200件，到2029财年将减少到780，000件。
In July, former USPTO Director Kathi Vidal said the Office was tackling the backlog in part via a concerted hiring effort. The agency hired 644 patent examiners in FY 23 and was on target to exceed its goal of hiring 850 examiners in FY 24. This push was planned to continue through FY 25.
今年7月，前USPTO主任Kathi Vidal表示，该办公室正在通过协调一致的招聘工作来解决积压的工作。该机构在23财年雇用了644名专利审查员，并有望在24财年超过雇用850名审查员的目标。这一推动计划将持续到2025财年。
Vidal in part blamed reduced hiring targets in response to a predicted slowdown in patent filings for 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, for the significant increase in the backlog, which some have said represents an all-time high for the Office. The decrease in filings turned out to be “more modest and short-lived than expected,” said Vidal, and the reduced hiring targets left the agency unable to keep up.
Vidal部分归咎于在疫情期间，为应对2020年和2021年专利申请量预计将放缓而降低的招聘目标，导致积压案件大幅增加，一些人说这是该办公室的历史新高。Vidal说，申请数量的减少“比预期的更加温和和短暂”，招聘目标的降低使该机构无法跟上。
More recently, former USPTO Deputy Director Derrick Brent, prior to his resignation and Coke Stewart’s appointment to take his place as Acting agency head, penned a Director’s Blog post explaining that the Office is “now at an inflection point that requires us to build examination capacity to achieve our long-term pendency goals.”
最近，前USPTO副主任德里克·布伦特在辞职和库克斯图尔特被任命为代理机构负责人之前，写了一篇主任博客帖子，解释说该办公室“现在处于一个转折点，需要我们建立专利审查能力，以实现我们的长期悬而未决的目标。”
Hiring has typically played a key role in reducing patent pendency. In 2007, due to concerns about the USPTO backlog of 730,000 unexamined patent applications at the time, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) presented a report to Congress that found the Office’s hiring efforts were not sufficient to reduce the backlog. The backlog subsequently decreased over time, after various new approaches to hiring were implemented.
招聘通常在减少专利悬而未决方面发挥着关键作用。2007年，由于担心USPTO当时积压的730，000件未审查的专利申请，政府问责局(GAO)向国会提交了一份报告，发现该局的招聘工作不足以减少积压。随着时间的推移，在实施了各种新的招聘方法后，积压的工作减少了。
The USPTO told IPWatchdog the Office has no comment on the hiring freeze.
USPTO告诉IPWatchdog，该办公室对招聘冻结不予置评。
Back to the Office?
回办公室吗？
Trump has also mandated that federal government employees come back to the Office five days per week, something that would be virtually impossible for the USPTO, which has remote workers all over the country. Dennis Crouch reported today that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has now issued implementation guidance that Crouch noted includes “strict timelines and requirements that could force dramatic changes at the USPTO, where remote work has been a cornerstone of operations for decades.”
特朗普还强制要求联邦政府雇员每周五天回到办公室，这对美国专利商标局来说几乎是不可能的，因为美国专利商标局在全国各地都有远程工作人员。Dennis Crouch今天报告说，人事管理办公室(OPM)现已发布实施指南，Crouch指出，该指南包括“严格的时间表和要求，可能会迫使USPTO发生巨大变化，在USPTO，远程工作几十年来一直是运营的基石。”
The USPTO began its telework program in 1997. As of 2023, nearly 13,000 of the USPTO’s approximately 14,000 employees worked remotely.
USPTO在1997年开始了它的远程工作计划。截至2023年，USPTO约14，000名员工中有近13，000人远程工作。
During IPWatchdog LIVE 2024, former USPTO Director Andrei Iancu criticized certain aspects of the Office’s remote work policy. Iancu said remote work has “done great things for the Office,” but “since the pandemic ended the vast majority are not coming back in… If these examiners come straight into a remote environment, culturally, they don’t bond as they used to in the past.”
在IPWatchdog LIVE 2024期间，前USPTO主任安德烈·扬库批评了该办公室远程工作政策的某些方面。扬库表示，远程工作“为办公室做了很多事情”，但“自从疫情结束后，绝大多数人都不会再回来了……如果这些考官直接进入一个远程环境，从文化上来说，他们不会像过去那样团结一致。”
Former USPTO Commissioner for Patents Robert Stoll replied that “[in person] work is not coming back…so, I think we need to find tools that simulate in person training and community,” and Iancu largely agreed but said there are other steps that can be taken—such as requiring the academy to be in person again and requiring two years of on-site work—that would help with USPTO morale problems.
前USPTO专利专员Robert Stoll回答说，“(面对面)工作不会回来了……所以，我认为我们需要找到模拟面对面培训和社区的工具，”扬库基本上同意，但表示可以采取其他措施——例如要求学院再次面对面，并要求为期两年的驻局工作制度——这将有助于解决USPTO的士气问题。
There likely will be many challenges to Trump’s Return to Office mandate.
特朗普重返办公室的任务可能会面临许多挑战。