Patent Law

Flashback Foresight

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

World War II was coming to an end, Bing Crosby was playing on the radio, and Patent Office Commissioner Casper W. Ooms was professing:

It has been brought to my attention that the practice prevails [in] the Patent Office of measuring the "amount of work accomplished" by Assistant Examiners during particular periods of time by assigning quotas of production.... This practice necessarily emphasizes quantity rather than quality of work.

Work of the kind in which Patent Office Examiners are engaged involves great public and private interests, and requires exceptional training and experience coupled with matured and considered judgment in its execution. For these reasons, it cannot be measured by methods applicable to routine office operations. High class professional work performance in a favorable environment and adequately compensated inevitably attracts and holds high class men [and women], and the pride of achievement entertained by such men [and women] ordinarily provides a sufficient incentive for work which is commendable both as to quality and quantity.

The year: 1945.

Quote pulled from the September POPA newsletter.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on September 28, 2008 (boomark / email).