Officer time is limited
Robert Stoll ’23, March 9, a Partner and Co-Chair of the IP Practice Group at Faegre Drinker Biddle and Reath and a former United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent commissioner, “Let’s Take This Simple First Step Toward Better Quality Patents,” IP WATCHDOG, accessed July 7, 2024, https://ipwatchdog.com/2023/03/09/lets-take-simple-first-step-toward-better-quality-patents/id=157514/
Citing to specific lines for bases in the specification allows everyone to determine whether the newly claimed invention was originally contemplated by the inventors and provides more certainty for limited effort. We should not accept the argument that placing modest additional burdens on applicants in order to allow examiners to spend their limited time on more substantive and impactful tasks will make it too difficult to obtain patents. Enabling large companies to amass ever greater portfolios of low-quality patents on the cheap doesn’t serve the public interest or effectively incentivize innovation. Those whose business plans depend on enforceable rights should want fewer patents of higher quality and reliability.. And those inventors who can afford only one or two patents should prefer to invest a tiny bit more in prosecution to avoid wasting their scarce resources on an unsuccessful effort to enforce an invalid patent. This is one step towards better patent examination. I will be suggesting more!