Flawed Reviews, Low-Quality Patents: GAO Slams Patent Office’s Lax Oversight and Inaction
Alex Moss | May 14, 2025
Imagine paying $1,000 a month for a life-saving drug while knowing a cheaper generic version exists—but can’t reach the market. This isn’t a dystopian fantasy. It’s the direct result of a U.S. patent system that’s buckling under pressure, allowing low-quality patents to block competition and inflate prices. A bombshell 2025 GAO report exposes how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is failing at its most basic job: ensuring patents reward true innovation, not legal gaming.
Here’s how bureaucratic neglect and corporate exploitation are hurting patients, startups, and even the examiners tasked with protecting the system.
The Overworked Gatekeepers: Patent Examiners Speak Out
Patent examiners are the first line of defense against frivolous patents. But according to the GAO, they’re drowning under impossible demands.
“Quantity Over Quality” Culture: Examiners report relentless pressure to churn through applications. Bonuses reward speed, not accuracy. One former USPTO official said, “there was a saying during my tenure at [the USPTO] that a patent examiner never got fired for doing bad quality work, as long as they did a lot of it.”
Time Crunch Crisis: Most examiners interviewed by the GAO said that “they often do not complete a thorough search of prior art due to time constraints,” and therefore often grant patents that may not actually claim novel and non-obvious inventions.
Tech Whiplash: Examiners described reviewing applications in emerging technological fields—like mRNA vaccines or CRISPR gene editing—without the expertise required to understand them. As one examiner put it, “there are technologies I need to review that were not taught when I was in school and that I do not have background knowledge on. [I] need to spend time to learn about the technology...but I am not given enough time to... research... to fully come up to speed.” .
The result? Rushed reviews, missed prior art, and patent monopoliess that shouldn’t exist.
The Quality Charade: How the USPTO Inflates Its Report Card
The USPTO claims 92–98% of patents meet legal standards. The GAO explains why that’s false and misleading.
The 84% Problem: While the USPTO touts high compliance on individual requirements (e.g., novelty), according to its own (presumably, generous) metrics, only 84% of patents pass all four key tests (novelty, nonobviousness, clarity, and subject matter eligibility). That means 1 in 6 patents have critical flaws.
Supervisory Sleight of Hand: Managers often exclude errors from examiners’ performance reviews to avoid “discouraging” them. One examiner admitted cherry-picking their best work for review: “Why show the messy ones?”
Rubber-Stamp Reviews: The USPTO’s quality assurance office (OPQA) retroactively altered audits to downgrade errors. In 39 of 41 cases, “noncompliant” reviews magically became “compliant” with no explanation.
Fixing the System: What the GAO Says Must Change
The GAO’s blueprint for reform is clear—and urgent:
End the “Counts” Obsession: Replace output quotas with metrics that reward quality instead of quantity.
Tech-Specific Training: Invest in examiners specializing in AI, biotech, and other cutting-edge fields.
Transparency Over Theater: Require detailed and public reporting of PTAB-USPTO quality gaps.
The Bottom Line
The USPTO’s motto—“To promote innovation”—rings hollow when examiners are overworked, metrics are gamed, and bad patents block competition. For patients, entrepreneurs, and anyone who cares about fair markets, the message is clear: Demand accountability.
Because until the patent system rewards true inventors—not lawyers and speculators—we’ll keep paying the price in stalled progress and empty wallets