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Breaking the Logjam of the Patent Application Backlog

By Neil P. Ferraro
September 01, 2005

You have a brilliant idea and decide to engage a patent attorney to draft a patent application on it. In a matter of months, you will have an issued patent that you can take to the bank, license to others, or use to stop rival companies from competing with you. Right? Not so fast, says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

On average, a patent application filed today will take 2 1/2 years to be issued as a patent by the U.S. Patent Office ' up from 19 months in 1995.

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