Bloated Government

The Wall Street Journal reports on the growing backlog of patents waiting to be examined by the U.S. Patent Office. The cost to the economy of slow patent approvals include greater risks and costs for companies and investors, which slows down the pace of innovation.

If you think underfunding the Patent Office is the cause of this backlog, think again. After adjusting for inflation, the Patent Office has had a staggering 630% increase in funding from 1988 to 2008. The number of patent examiners increased 287%. In the meantime, the number of patent applications grew by only 213%.

So the number of patent applications per patent examiner has decreased 24%.

So there is vast more money and fewer patents per examiner. And the result is a backlog that has grown 180%.

This is the kind of efficiency that we get from government activities. Just think what greater government control of healthcare will mean.