Self Motivation and Quality
It's nice to make a difference.

In general, if you know that the job that you do is important and makes a real difference, I would think that would make it easier to be self motivated to do the best job possible.

Back when new examiners at the Office went through only a two-week training course (Patent Examiner Initial Training) before being set loose to examine new applications, there really wasn't much, if any, time devoted to instilling in examiners an appreciation for the importance of the job they were going to be doing (to my recollection, anyway).

It took me a long time to really gain a full appreciation for the impact that the job patent examiner makes on businesses, inventors and the economy in general. As I came to that realization, I wanted to do a better and better job of examination (within, of course, the production requirements that the Office imposes).

I've always had the impression that many examiners see patent examining as just another job. This really was very understandable, given that two weeks worth of training, especially when so many new examiners are straight out of school. I doubt that many new examiners have spent their time as patent-junkies before coming to the Office.

But patent examination isn't just another job, and it's important that it doesn't get treated like one.


For a long time, I never noticed any significant effort made on the part of the Office to help examiners to gain that appreciation for the impact that their job has, but that as definitely changed over the last few years.

The Office now puts their new examiners through 8 months of initial training, and although I don't have any firsthand knowledge of the exact curriculum being taught, I assume that there's some time devoted to giving the students an appreciation for the importance and impact the the job has on society.

The Patent and Trademark Office Society has begun organizing trips to the courthouse (even the Supreme Court for KSR!) to attend hearings on important patent cases.

The Office has also started putting links to stories in the media about the PTO and patent issues into the weekly newsletter. The introduction:

"Welcome to "USPTO in the news", where you'll find the five major news stories from the previous week covering important news about our office, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and IP policy and enforcement. Please take a moment to read these stories -- you'll gain a greater understanding of the issues affecting the USPTO and become better informed about what the media and our stakeholders are saying about the USPTO."


In a recent issue, they linked to the following stories:

Managing Intellectual Property
"Federal Circuit seeks new patentability test in Bilski" - May 12, 2008

Information Week
"Patent Office Hosts Toy Design Competition for Students" - May 13, 2008

San Jose Mercury
"Get moving on patent reform measure stalled in Senate" - May 11, 2008

Intellectual Property Watch
Bush Administration Pushes On For Patent Reform Bill This Year" - May 16, 2008

Intellectual Property Watch
"Francis Gurry Of Australia Wins Election To Be Next WIPO Director General" - May 13, 2008


'The Weekly' has even posted their own story regarding the possible impact that the Bilski case might have. The introductory paragraph:

"Recently, the media has focused on the pending In re Bilski case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., which is an appeal from a decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO). After a full-court hearing on May 8, many reporters and bloggers have speculated that this case will lead to the end of business method patents. To help USPTO Weekly readers get a better understanding about the Bilski appeal, the Weekly investigated the case."

The entire text of this story can be found at The Patent Prospector.


Self-motivation can go a long way to ensuring quality patent examination, and knowing you are doing something that matters goes a long way to getting one self-motivated. After all, everybody wants to feel like they make a difference.