Patent clerk

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A patent clerk or patent examiner is an employee, usually a civil servant, working within a patent office. Major employers of patent clerks are the European Patent Office, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office. In the United States those who examine patent applications are called "patent examiners."

Contents

1 Duties
2 Patent clerks by legislation

2.1 European Patent Organisation
2.2 United States

3 Notable patent clerks
4 References and notes
5 See also
6 External links

Duties

Patent clerks examine patent applications as to whether they deserve a patent. The work of patent clerks usually includes searching patent and scientific literature databases for prior art, and substantively examining patent applications, that is examining whether the claimed invention meets the patentability requirements such as novelty, "inventive step" or "non-obviousness", "industrial application" (or "utility") and sufficiency of disclosure.

Patent examiners can gain knowledge of patent applications before the public can, so that they may be viewed somewhat as being at the forefront of new technologies.

Patent clerks by legislation

European Patent Organisation

European Patent Organisation (EPO) examiners are exempted from work- and residence-permit procedures (but since most of EPC Contracting States are members of the European Union, this is usually not a problem anyway).

The examiners examine patent applications in three official languages (English language, French language, and German language). Examiners are hired for searching databases, document analysis, patent communications, and judging patent validity.

A qualified clerk possesses the formal following minimums:

EPO member state nationality,
Degree in engineering or in science;
knowledge and ability of the official languages

Some clerks have work experience in industry, but this is not a essential background as there is training in patent examination. "[Patent examiner posts]". European Patent Office (EPO), retrieved on June 12, 2006. Examiners can specialize in fields of technology in which inventions are patentable under the European Patent Convention (EPC), such as computer science, electricity and semi-conductor technology, industrial chemistry, organic chemistry, electronics, horology, mechanical engineering, measuring, optics, telecommunications, polymer chemistry or civil engineering.

United States

American patent examiners are hired at the GS-5, GS-7, or GS-9 grade levels GS-5, GS-7, or GS-9 grade levels are the employee classification scheme within the US government. and are eligible for an accelerated promotion after six months of service when they meet the performance of a new examiner. Subsequent promotions are noncompetitive up to the GS-13 level. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an examiner's performance is measured entirely by their own achievement and does not depend on the performance of others. "[What makes the USPTO a great place to work?]", USPTO Patent Examiner Recruitment, United States Patent and Trademark Office, retrieved on June 12, 2006. Legal, technical and automation training is provided to examiners at the USPTO.

American clerk responsibilities include:

Reviewing patent applications to determine if they comply with basic format, rules and legal requirements;
Determining the scope of the protection claimed by the inventor;
Researching relevant technologies to compare similar prior inventions with the invention claimed in the patent applications; and
Communicating findings as to the patentability of an applicant's invention via a written action to inventors/patent practitioners.

A qualified examiner with the USPTO is a United States citizen and holds at a minimum a Bachelor degree in one of the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering disciplines, or in computer science. Advanced academic degrees and relevant work experience in the technical area are not uncommon either. Specific fields [Patent examiner, GS-1224 (Qualifications)], United States Patent and Trademark Office. include computer science (with calculus, differential equations and statistics), electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, agriculture engineering, ceramic engineering, textile engineering, computer hardware and software engineering, transportation and construction engineering, metallurgy engineering, materials engineering, physics, chemical engineering, organic chemistry, chemistry, biology, and pharmacology.

Notable patent clerks

Genrich Altshuller, (1926-1998)
Clara Barton, (1821–1912), worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Albert Einstein, (1879–1955), worked at the Swiss Patent Office
Thomas P. Jones, (1774-1848), engineer and publisher, worked at the USPTO
Richard Bissell Prosser, (1838-1918), worked at the United Kingdom Patent Office
Johan Vaaler, (1866–1910)

References and notes

Portions of this article incorporates works of the U.S. Government. As per 17 U.S.C. § 105, materials created by the United States government are in the public domain.

External links

"[Just a Patent Examiner]", blog about intellectual property, ip, patent office, patents, uspto.
John W. Schoen, "[U.S. patent office swamped by backlog; Without more funding, wait time could top 5 years]". MSNBC, April 27, 2004. (ed., comments on problems and that 2900 new examiners are being sought by the USPTO.)

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