The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published two new reports on Patent Office Activities along with the results of a major survey of 2,600 patent examiners.
Regarding patent quality, the GAO suggested that the USPTO's standard of patent quality should focus solely on the basics: defining "a quality patent as one that would meet the statutory requirements for novelty and clarity, among others, and would be upheld if challenged in a lawsuit or other proceeding." However, patent clarity must be an important element of that definition.