Comments on: Patent Office Keeps Check, Lets Patent Go Abandoned For Being $10 Short

By: Stephen Albainy-Jenei

Stephen Albainy-Jenei — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:42:31 +0000

GGEEGGEE,

Sometimes things are funnier in my head than written out on a web page. Having said that, what I had in mind is that the USPTO, like the airlines, has a lot of complicated rules. They both can claim that they are just following the rules. But, they both get to make a lot of the rules themselves, often arbitrarily.

Where the analogy diverges is that the airlines are privates businesses and the patent office is a branch of the government. In the of/by/for the people sense, they are us. They should be in the customer/citizen service business.

In defense of airlines, I have (more often than not) had a customer service agent bend over backwards to help me out. I may hate Delta’s prices (and seat legroom) but I’ve always experienced great service.

Stephen

By: ggeegee

ggeegee — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:25:39 +0000

I’m not sure if I get the airline analogy.

If I were to go to an airline ticket counter with a ticket for the wrong flight, insufficient funds, and be there on the wrong day, I would not expect to be flying that day.

Nor would I expect to win a billion dollar lawsuit against the airlines because of the three mistakes I made.

By: MaxDrei

MaxDrei — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:34:14 +0000

I’m thinking that the triple error must have happened an awful long time ago and that, if it were to happen again today, the susequent chain of events would be very different, because the PTO has learned from its mistake. I had thought that, in any organisation, a good measure of “quality” is how much analysis of mistakes takes place, and how much implementation of measures that not only minimise the chances of the same mistake happening again but also make maximum use of all lessons learned.

Has the pauper Mr Taylor therefore provided valuable public service? Could the same story play out a second time, in today’s USPTO? Surely not.