🚀 go-pugleaf

Glenn Tenney brings up a very good point: Why do we expect the
PTO to understand many of the issues of software, mathematics,
and algorithms. The PTO has a very hard time recruiting and
keeping talented folks. 
 
I live in the DC suburbs for a simple reason: I grew up here
and all my family is here because my dad worked for 
the PTO as an examiner from the late 30s until he retired 
in the late 70s. He was a GS13 at the time. He had a BS in
engineering and 30+ years of experience searching the
shoeboxes (that hold the patents). A GS13 is now about $52,000.
That may be a lot of money in some cities, but it does not
reflect the cost of living in DC.

Housing prices in the DC area are up there with suburban NYC
and California. My ten year old house, four bedroom center
hall colonial, inside the Beltway, is assessed by the tax man
at $320,000. A GS13 could not afford to buy it. In fact,
nearly every couple in the area has two incomes so they can 
buy a house.  I probably would have a hard time buying my own
house, and I have 20 years of experience and make much more
than a GS13. 

I have a day job working for AMS, a fairly large software
firm. AMS hires lots (hundreds per year) of college grads. 
Starting salaries are in the high 20s and low 30s. The 
new hires expect 8% a year, and after four years, salaries 
in the low $50s are possible for stars.  There is no chance 
that the PTO can pay a four year out of school examiner 
competitive salaries.

Of course there is more security in a government postion, but
few fresh grads care about that. So the PTO has a real hard time
recruiting. They have the usual fast track, where you start as
a GS7, and do a GS9, 11, 12, 13 jump over about 8 years, but
then it stops. Non-supervisory GS14s are very rare. And
supervisory positions at the GS14 and above level get political
de facto, even if they are not strictly political
appointments. How interested would you be to have a job that
was not respected by most of your peers and have a fixed upper
limit on your income after less than ten years?

It saddens me to hear all the PTO bashing about software
patents. I don't think the problems are caused by the hard
working employees of the PTO. There are more complex reasons
why we are in this mess, and I think we should start looking 
for solutions that can be realisticaly implemented. Viable
solutions start with rethinking the fundamental assumptions of
software patents. Helpful steps may be as simple as moving 
the whole PTO to a city where the salaries are competitive.

// Followups to comp.org.eff.talk, not sci.crypt!

Pat

Pat Farrell,      Grad Student                       pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu
Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
#include standard.disclaimer