US patent office Fee schedule questions

If you want the official USPTO fee schedule, here it is.  If you want to read questions I have about the fee schedule, then read on from here.

The search fee for a utility patent is $620, and $310 -- if the applicant is a small entity.  It is known, but I can't prove it's known, that the complexity of the search depends on the type of invention.  An application for a latch is usually easier to search for than an application for a method of moving electrons in a certain way.  This is because latches can usually be pictured and it's hard to picture a method for moving electrons without describing it.  Pictures are easier to search through than written descriptions.  For me, the fact that searches vary in difficulty but don't vary in price, raises the following questions.

Should there be a different fee for different applications that claim different inventions, i.e. does it actually take more work to search for some inventions?  Do different fees raise the barrier to entry into the patent game, for certain arts? Does the patent system incentivze innovation if it charges applicants more when they apply for inventions that are hard to search for?  Do other countries do it differently? do private companies do it differently? I'll answer these questions in a later blog.

Why you should allow

As an examiner, you might think that more valid patents are good because they encourage innovation; are bad because they hamper innovation; or they're the thing that gets you paid.  

If you think that more valid patents are a good thing, then allow more valid patents and encourage innovation.  This assumes that you believe the constitutional intent of the patent system is "[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts..."

If you think that more valid patents are a bad thing, then you still want allowances. More valid patents will gum up the system and make the drawbacks of the patent system more vivid.

If you think issuing patents is a way to get paid, then you still still want allowances.  The office works on counts.  You have to get a certain amount of counts each bi-week to get your paycheck and bonuses.  A first action allowance is worth two counts, a first action rejection is worth 1.25 counts.  A second action allowance is worth .75 counts, compared to a final rejection which is only worth .25 counts.  "ALLOW!!"