<< It has been widely recognized for many years that patent quality has declined markedly.  The Patent Office is run by political appointees and staffed by unionized government-schedule examiners.  Whether or not there is a connection I'll leave for others to determine.  >>

I have worked with patents and other IP for most of my career.  I don't believe the problem with patents has anything to do with either political appointees and certainly not by unionized employees.  I believe what has most impacted the office are:

- Creation of the Provisional Patent Application process and disclosures. (1994) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_application 
- Granting of Business Process Patents. (2000) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_method_patent 
 - A change in the patent granting process from "first to invent" to "first to file." (2013) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_invent 

The patent applications provided by Natasha are proof to me that the process is improving, not failing.  Please remember that patent examiners can reject a patent application only for specified reasons:

 - It is scientifically impossible (An application for a perpetual motion devices cannot be filed)
 - The application is structurally deficient or the fee is incorrect.
 - The invention is obvious.
 - The examiner finds prior art (either a prior patent or non-patented tecnology)

According to resources, 95% of all patent applications are rejected.  

Please note that the reason you are seeing so many patent applications published is because the Patent Office generally publishes patent applications eighteen months after the initial submission of the application.  Publishing of the application does not mean granting of a patent, it means only that a formal patent application was submitted.  Remember also that obtaining a patent is relatively inexpensive. Enforcement of the inventor's patent rights is very expensive and if prior art is located or prior invention is found, the inventor risks having their patent invalidated.

Bill Roach, CRM

Opinions are my own and not those of my employer or any other entity.

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