A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an

employee Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

, usually a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

with a scientific or engineering background, working at a

patent office A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether the applicati ...

Duties

Due to a long-standing and incessantly growing backlog of unexamined patent applications, examiners have a very limited amount of time to determine patentability of disclosed inventions. Ill-defined "tenure rules", as well as pressure to work overtime to meet the "production quotas", result in very high (over 50% within 4 years after hiring, mostly involuntary) attrition rates among patent examiners, especially at the

USPTO The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Ale ...

. The attrition (mostly involuntary) of patent examiners is so severe that "in some years the USPTO loses more examiners than it hires". Some patent applications are easy for an examiner to assess, but others require considerably more time. This has given rise to controversy: on April 13, 2007, a "Coalition of Patent Examiner Representatives" expressed concern that

Offices

European Patent Office

Patent examiners at the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

(EPO) carry out examination and opposition procedures for patent applications originating anywhere in the world and seeking protection in any of the member states of the

European Patent Organisation The European Patent Organisation (sometimes abbreviated EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, one of the two organs of the organisation) is a public international intellectual property organisation, organisation create ...

. Candidates for examiner positions must meet certain minimum requirements: * EPO member state nationality; * degree in engineering or in science; * good knowledge of two languages out of German, English and French with a willingness to learn the third."
Required profile for an EPO patent examiner
'". European Patent Office (EPO), retrieved on June 28, 2010. Some examiners have work experience in industry, but such experience is not required. EPO examiners are also reportedly required to speak three languages fluently. Most EPO examiners are represented by SUEPO, a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Patent examiners at the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency in the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark ...

(USPTO) examine patent applications for claims of new inventions. Examiners make determinations of patentability based on policies and guidance from this agency, in compliance with federal laws (

Title 35 of the United States Code Title 35 of the United States Code is a title of United States Code regarding patent law. The sections of Title 35 govern all aspects of patent law in the United States. There are currently 37 chapters, which include 376 sections (149 of which a ...

), rules, judicial precedents, and guidance from agency administrators. Examiners are hired at the GS-5, GS-7, GS-9 or GS-11 grade levels. Patent examiners in the U.S. have responsibilities that are commensurate with their GS level. Promotions from GS-7 to GS-14 are non-competitive. At GS-13 they are eligible to start the "Partial Signatory Authority" program, a testing phase to see if an examiner can apply patent concepts (e.g.

obviousness The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive—i.e., non-obvious—in order to be patented. In other words, " he ...

and

novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

) and laws ( 35 USC). Upon passing the "Partial Signatory Program", a patent examiner is given signatory authority to sign all of their own non-final rejections and other non-final communications to applicants. After a waiting period a patent examiner may take part in an additional testing phase known as the "Full Signatory Authority" (FSA) program. When a patent examiner has passed the FSA program, they are given "Full Signatory Authority" and can sign all of their own "office actions" (e.g. allowances, rejections) without review and approval by a supervisor. Such examiners are also able to review and sign actions of "junior examiners" (patent examiners without signatory authority). Upon completion of the "Full Signatory Authority program", an examiner is advanced from GS-13 to GS-14 and is referred to as a "primary examiner". According to the USPTO, an examiner is measured entirely by his own performance, without regard to the performance of others. To work as an examiner at the USPTO, a person must be a

U.S. citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Consti ...

and pass a background investigation.Tamara Dillon
"Patent work: The other side of invention"
Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Fall 2009, page 21. Experienced examiners have an option of working primarily from home through a hoteling program implemented in 2006 by the USPTO. A 2023 study looked into how political preferences of USPTO examiners affect their propensity to allow patent claims. They found no statistically significant difference except for the case when the most politically active examiners (i.e. those who donate to political campaigns) examine software patents (i.e. in the Art Units where the examiners have the most discretion). In this case Republican-leaning examiners are more likely to issue patents than Democratically-leaning examiners.Partisan patent examiners? Exploring the link between the political ideology of patent examiners and patent office outcomes. 2023. Res Policy. 52/9. J. Raffiee, F. Teodoridis, D. Fehder. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104853.

Duties

Offices

European Patent Office

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Notable patent examiners

See also

Notes and references

Further readings