In an extraordinary letter, executives of five patent examiners unions around (US, Europe, Germany, Austria, Canada) the world have written a joint letter of protest to the directors/presidents of their Patent Offices. While their two page letter isn't that long, I can sum it up in one sentence:
WE WANT BETTER MANAGEMENT OF OUR WORK CONDITIONS - NOW!!!
And I wholeheartedly agree. The first step is a global ban on any future appointment of incompetent, patent law ignorant political hacks as the head of any Patent Office - that is, Jon Dudas, PLEASE RESIGN NOW!!! The second step is independent assessments of operations and quality. The third step is doubling filing fees.
A copy of the letter is available at: www.bustpatents.com/epocipo.pdf What follows is the text of their letter. Now, I wonder if the major IP bar groups of the world, AIPLA/CIPA/FICPI/LES will take the same letter, with a few changes, sign it, and also send it to the same Patent Office presidents/directors. If these presidents/directors received enough such similar letters, well, at least they might feel guilty when they decide not to do anything.
Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service