IPRIA Working Paper Series
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Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia Working Paper No. 02/2008 Misclassification in Patent Offices by Paul H Jensen, Alfons Palangkaraya and Elizabeth Webster Date: May 2008 Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the number of misclassified patent applications at the EPO and JPO – that is, applications that are incorrectly refused a patent (Type I error) and applications that are incorrectly granted a patent (Type II error). Using a proxy for inventive step as the predictor of the correct decision, we estimate that 6.1 and 9.8 per cent of patents are, respectively, incorrectly rejected and incorrectly granted. We find evidence that patent offices are less likely to make Type I and Type II errors the longer the duration of examination and the greater is the applicant’s experience with submitting applications. Furthermore, the likelihood of committing a Type II error is an increasing function of the speed of technological change. While many believe that over the last decade the USPTO has been increasingly liberal in its treatment of ‘bad’ patents, there is no evidence that this also occurred at the EPO and JPO. Downloads: PDF [288K] |
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