Some interesting articles:

What patent office really needs: an invention to cut the backlog

excerpt:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's an awful lot pending at the patent office these days.

A record backlog at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has left inventors waiting two years and more for approvals, delaying the arrival of new goods on the market.

James A. Rogan, who heads the office, has warned Congress that the backlog of applications could soar to over a million by 2008 -- more than twice today's level -- unless he can increase the fees inventors pay by about 15 percent. The average patent will soon take as long as four years, he said.

The wait is about 24 months now.

"My guess is that somewhere in that (backlog) there are life-enhancing, productivity-increasing, job-producing items, technologies ... that we'd be better having today than waiting for," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif.

Berman is the ranking minority member of the subcommittee in the House of Representatives that deals with intellectual property.

Patent officials blame the delays on more applications and longer reviews for increasingly complex inventions, particularly in biotechnology and computer-related technologies.

James Rogan, the head of the Patent Office, wants to raise the fees inventors pay by about 15 percent. That's a terrible idea. It's especially offensive considering the Patent Office is one of the few federal agencies that makes money, and that Congress annually steals about $800 million from the office to fund other parts of the government. Higher fees would simply stifle invention, which defeats the purpose.
No, the answer lies in letting the office retain more of its own money so that it can modernize. It also lies in privatizing some of the functions of the office — allowing others to review particularly complicated technological applications.