Patent Examination Statistics
RCED-96-152R: Published: May 22, 1996. Publicly Released: May 22, 1996.
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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO) patent application examination process. GAO noted that: (1) PTO calculation of average pendency includes all issued patents and abandoned applications over a particular period, but does not include applications still under consideration; (2) abandoned applications constituted about 39 percent of the PTO workload in fiscal year 1994 and stayed in the examination process an average of 18.3 months; (3) applications still under consideration had an average pendency of 16 months, but 2.7 percent of these applications had been in process for over 4 years because of delays beyond PTO control; (4) complex inventions and inventions subject to secrecy orders tend to have longer patent pendency periods; (5) foreign applications have slightly longer pendency periods than domestic applications; (6) pendency would have increased on average by 6.7 to 9 months if PTO used original filing dates; and (7) applicants add about 7.4 months on average to the pendency period because of incomplete applications, failure to provide requested information promptly, and failure to pay examination fees.
Oct 26, 2020
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Intellectual Property:
CBP Has Taken Steps to Combat Counterfeit Goods in Small Packages but Could Streamline EnforcementGAO-20-692: Published: Sep 24, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
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Federal Criminal Restitution:
Department of Justice Has Ongoing Efforts to Improve Its Oversight of the Collection of Restitution and Tracking the Use of Forfeited AssetsGAO-20-676R: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Sep 10, 2020
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Federal Tactical Teams:
Characteristics, Training, Deployments, and InventoryGAO-20-710: Published: Sep 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 10, 2020.
Sep 8, 2020
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VA Police:
Actions Needed to Improve Data Completeness and Accuracy on Use of Force Incidents at Medical CentersGAO-20-599: Published: Sep 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 8, 2020.
Aug 13, 2020
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Anti-Money Laundering:
FinCEN Should Enhance Procedures for Implementing and Evaluating Geographic Targeting OrdersGAO-20-546: Published: Jul 14, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 13, 2020.
Jul 29, 2020
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Federal Prison Industries:
Actions Needed to Evaluate Program EffectivenessGAO-20-505: Published: Jul 29, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 29, 2020.
Jul 8, 2020
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Gun Control:
DOJ Can Further Improve Guidance on Federal Firearm Background Check RecordsGAO-20-528: Published: Jul 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 8, 2020.
Jun 22, 2020
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Federal Prisons:
Additional Analysis Needed to Determine Whether to Issue Pepper Spray to Minimum Security PrisonsGAO-20-342: Published: Jun 22, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 22, 2020.
May 26, 2020
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Bureau of Prisons:
Improved Planning Would Help BOP Evaluate and Manage Its Portfolio of Drug Education and Treatment ProgramsGAO-20-423: Published: May 26, 2020. Publicly Released: May 26, 2020.
May 12, 2020
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Forensic Technology:
Algorithms Used in Federal Law EnforcementGAO-20-479SP: Published: May 12, 2020. Publicly Released: May 12, 2020.
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