Improving flow of ideas

Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Innovations that represent tomorrow’s emerging businesses and industries often begin as hazy concepts from people who want to make life easier or more enjoyable, filling a need no one else is meeting. The concepts take shape, typically in garages, basements or laboratories, and are then tested to see if they work. To protect the ideas from getting stolen, wise inventors apply for patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

But the agency that serves as a gateway between novel ideas and the marketplace is in dire need of fine-tuning. As The New York Times reported last week, there is such a backlog of patent applications that inventors must wait two years on average for an initial ruling and at least an additional year before the patent is issued. Such delays are inexcusable.

One way to help the nation recover from its sluggish economy and compete globally is to make sure ideas that fill a need reach the marketplace in a timely fashion. Manufacturing, sales and distribution jobs can be created more rapidly if the patent application process is put on a faster track. Nevada, which is stuck with double-digit unemployment, can certainly use the additional jobs that can come from swifter patent approvals.

In a strategic plan that runs through 2015, the agency conceded it faces numerous challenges, including insufficient funding, technology and personnel to handle the growing volume of patent applications. In one sense, it is heartening that the spirit of innovation is alive and well in America. As the Times reported, the agency issued more than 209,000 patents last year, a record volume that was 29 percent higher than the average over the previous four years. But 1.2 million applications are pending, with little relief in sight.

Patent office Director David Kappos is seeking funding for more than 2,000 additional examiners over the next two years, representing a 30 percent staff increase. The Obama administration, recognizing the agency’s importance, is proposing a 28 percent funding increase in the coming fiscal year that could help significantly reduce the patent application logjam.

But Congress hasn’t made the agency a top priority, as evidenced by lawmakers’ defeat of legislation in recent years that would have allowed the patent office to keep all fees it collects from applicants.

We recognize that Congress has a lot of priorities to juggle, but lawmakers should not hesitate to fully finance the patent office. Somewhere out there are people with ideas — think light bulb or microprocessor — that could one day help employ millions of Americans. Making the patent application process as swift and painless as possible will help reduce the red tape inventors must endure to turn those hazy concepts into worthwhile innovations.