By: Mercury News Editorial
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com
Category: Patent News
When Detroit was announced as the location for the first regional U.S. Patent Office, the reaction here in Silicon Valley was:
Michigan leaders bragged that their coup made sense because the University of Michigan, a top research institution, averages 80 patents per year. OK. But Stanford had double that number in 2010. And Silicon Valley companies, which employ more than 160,000 engineers, submit about 900 applications, like clockwork, every single month.
The innovation capital of the world is hands down the best location for one of the three satellite patent offices that have been promised to reduce the outrageous backlog in processing applications -- now 1.2 million and counting. It takes on average a little over three years to get a patent. In Silicon Valley time, that is eons. Products and entire markets can appear, make a fortune and vanish in less.
Lots of cities want a patent office, from Phoenix to Austin to Denver. But Silicon Valley's application submitted Monday to Patent Office Director David Kappos highlights three critical factors that put it head and shoulders above the competition.
President Barack Obama should get behind this bid. He knows the valley is doing more than any other region to lead the nation back to prosperity and to keep it competitive in the global marketplace. Why not put the office in the place best able to make the most of it?
It's not Kappos fault that the application backlog is so embarrassing. Congress raided $800 million from his budget last year -- money that should have gone toward more examiners and improved technology. Lawmakers grandstand about helping business, but this lapse shows how little they understand the technology industry. Hitting the sweet spot in timing to release a new product is a critical factor in a company's performance.
Kappos' goal is to cut patent processing time in half, to 18 months. The surest way to meet it is a satellite office in Silicon Valley, giving companies' engineers and attorneys easy access to examiners well versed on patent issues.
Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino says the patent office proposal has electrified Valley leaders like few other issues in the past 15 years. More than 125 valley CEOs have signed on to support the application, along with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren are making the case in Washington.
With Detroit already awarded one of the three planned satellite offices, and since the U.S. Patent Office headquarters are in Alexandria, Va., it's obvious that the next regional office belongs on the West Coast. And five of the top 10 cities in America for generating patents are San Jose, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Cupertino and Fremont.
Politics has no place in this decision. (Did we mention Detroit?) Speeding up patents will speed economic recovery, and Silicon Valley is the place to count on.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_19855242
