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BioWorld - Tuesday, February 17, 2026
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Home » OIG report accuses patent examiners of abuse
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OIG report accuses patent examiners of abuse

Sep. 6, 2016
By Mark McCarty
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Commerce has issued a report alleging that patent examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) have abused their time-off privileges to such a degree that it has affected the backlog of patents. One of the more troubling aspects of the OIG report, however, is that the purported abuse could account for twice as many hours of clock time as described in the report.
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