Law360 Quotes Partner Charles Gorenstein on Potential Impact of Federal Hiring Freeze on USPTO

BSKB partner Charles Gorenstein was quoted in a January 24, 2017 Law360 article entitled “Federal Hiring Freeze Could Hurt Patent Quality,” where he discussed the potential impact of the recently instituted federal hiring freeze on processes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Potential impact of the freeze at the USPTO includes possible delays in the patent process, from application intake to examination, as well as the potential for a decrease in quality, as attempts are made to stay on deadline with increased workloads. Mr. Gorenstein notes that the patent office might be particularly susceptible to the effects of this freeze because there has historically been a relatively high turnover rate in the examining corps. He also states “If they continue to lose examiners at really any rate — a normal rate or a higher-than-normal rate — and if they can’t replace them, then inevitably we’ll see a slowdown of output and the backlog will increase. Obviously, that’s going to happen if there are fewer people to do the work.”

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