I was a bit stunned to learn that on average, it takes a patent application 32 months to receive final approval in the US, a fact that is clearly hurting the prospects of entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to move forward with their ideas and inventions. Given the nature of the business world, where in most cases, potential investors want to ensure that companies have their intellectual property in place so that they won’t be beaten to the marketplace, this lags not only threatens these individual start-ups, but the entire economy as well. As I’ve said before, entrepreneurs and small businesses provide the kind of innovation we need to speed our recovery and guarantee rich long term prospects.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the biggest challenges to streamlining the process are uneven government funding (though much of the Patent office is directly financed by application fees) and high attrition rates amongst employees. Despite these obstacles, the backlog just keeps growing.

Two telling statistics: 1) The number of applications filed with the USPTO totaled almost 497,000 in fiscal 2008, up 31 percent from fiscal 2004. 2) During that five-year span, the total number of applications pending at the agency has increased 60 percent, from around 756,000 to more than 1.2 million.

Troubling news indeed. Perhaps a joint venture between private enterprise and the patent office is in order to really explore the approval process and determine how best to address the problem going forward.

For those preparing to tackle the patent process themselves, the article offers some savvy advice to ensure that your approval aren’t further delayed. Read the full piece here.

[image via westerndave]