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from the explains-a-lot-of-recent-patents dept.
An internal investigation by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office found that some of its 8,300 patent examiners repeatedly lied about the hours they were putting in and many were receiving bonuses for work they did not do. While half of the USPTO's Patent Examiners work from home full time, oversight of the telework program and of examiners based at the Alexandria headquarters was "completely ineffective," investigators concluded.
The internal investigation also unearthed another widespread problem. More than 70 percent of the 80 managers interviewed also told investigators that a "significant" number of examiners did not work for long periods, then rushed to get their reviews done at the end of each quarter. Supervisors told the review team that the practice "negatively affects" the quality of the work. "Our quality standards are low," one supervisor told the investigators. "We are looking for work that meets minimal requirements."
Patent examiners review applications and grant patents on inventions that are new and unique. They are experts in their fields, often with master's and doctoral degrees. They earn at the top of federal pay scale, with the highest taking home $148,000 a year.
But when it came time last summer for the patent office to turn over the findings to its outside watchdog, the most damaging revelations had disappeared. The report sent to Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser concluded that it was impossible to know if the whistleblowers' allegations of systemic abuses were true.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 12 2014, @02:54AM
Which perfectly proves their point about how government is incompetent and worthless and needs to be shrank even further. You're pretty naive if you think its not intentional; after all, if you campaign on a platform of "Government is incompetent" its in your best interests to prove its incompetence when you're in the position to do so.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday August 12 2014, @03:56AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Tuesday August 12 2014, @06:36AM
That's exactly what is happening in Australia right now. Tony Abbot spent so long telling everyone that everything is Labours fault and if they would just vote him in then all the problems would disappear that he forgot it was all bullshit initially made up by Nick Minchen.
He forgot that no goverment can control what he told everyone was the Labours fault (well, aside from all the unnecessary tax breaks his side of politics bought votes with during the mining boom), forgot that stuff he made up about the mining tax and carbon tax was just bullshit, forgot that Labour already made all the budgetary cuts that were reasonable and forgot to have any kind of policy in place aprt from "oppose Labour" with the exception of his expensive paid parental leave scheme which he just announced without taking to the party room because he knew he couldn't get the female vote without it. And the "stop the boats" policy which is the most successful policy they have, mainly because they've created a media blackout around it.
The one good thing about it all is that they are doing such a bad job that it might create the conditions for a kind of slingshot effect away from the views of the right (what I call 'reductionist').