FEDERALhearing transcript

High Impact

Hearing on Time and Attendance Issues at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Original title: TIME AND ATTENDANCE ABUSE AT THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

January 1, 2017

government accountability patent office time and attendance federal oversight workplace policy

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The Frame

What this does

The hearing examines the management of federal employee timekeeping and performance metrics at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where unsupported work hours may have contributed to a backlog of over 540,000 patent applications.

Who is mentioned in the record

Potentially affected actors named in the source documents. Mention is not a position.

Patent Examiners

Their timekeeping records and performance ratings were the subject of the OIG audit and subsequent congressional hearing.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

The agency is responsible for managing the patent application backlog and overseeing employee time and attendance policies.

What changed

Last recorded activity January 1, 2017.

What's next

Next step not available in the current record.

Summary

This hearing addressed a 2016 Inspector General report that identified significant discrepancies between hours claimed by patent examiners and actual computer activity logs. The report estimated that nearly 290,000 hours were unsupported, representing approximately $18.3 million in potential taxpayer waste.

Key Facts

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified 288,479 unsupported work hours by patent examiners over a 15-month period.
The unsupported hours represent an estimated $18.3 million in potential waste.
The analysis covered nearly 8,400 patent examiners.
415 examiners had 10 percent or more of their reported hours listed as unsupported.
310 examiners who received above-average performance ratings accounted for nearly 98,000 of the unsupported hours.
The current patent application backlog stands at 540,000 cases.
The unsupported hours could have potentially addressed 15,990 patent application cases.
The OIG compared certified work hours against VPN and computer workstation activity logs.

Why It Matters

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 'unsupported hours' mean in this context?

It refers to hours that employees certified as worked but which could not be verified by electronic data, such as VPN logs or computer workstation activity records.

How many patent applications are currently waiting to be processed?

The document states the backlog stands at 540,000 applications.

News Coverage

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Discoveries

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.

policy shift100% confidence

Performance vs. Attendance Disconnect

The document reveals a significant number of employees with high performance ratings who simultaneously had high rates of unsupported work hours.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Connected Entities

personPamela Schwartz“President, Patent Office Professional Association”Map →

personRussell Slifer“Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property”Map →

personDavid Smith“Acting Deputy Inspector General, U.S. Department of Commerce”Map →

organizationU.S. Department of Commerce“Parent department of the USPTO and the Office of Inspector General”Map →

organizationU.S. Patent and Trademark Office“The federal agency under review for time and attendance practices”Map →

personMark Meadows“Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations”Map →

personDavid Chu“Panel Chair, National Academy of Public Administration”Map →

Sources

Open source document

www.govinfo.gov

Analysis Score

0–100

Significance85
How much this matters to a regular citizen
Controversy75
Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
Entertainment40
Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
Buzz20
Current news / social attention level

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