GAO Warns USPTO Backlog Targets Risk Failure Under Staff Strain
Examiner attrition of 7.6 percent threatens agency efforts to reduce pending patent applications below 599,000.
A federal audit released on November 5, 2026, found that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cannot meet its backlog reduction goals without resolving worsening staff turnover. The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows that an annual examiner attrition rate of 7.6 percent and cutbacks in training threaten both examination quality and agency targets.
Staff departures outpace agency targets
The unexamined inventory at the office reached an all-time high of about 838,000 files in January 2025, when Coke Morgan Stewart took over as Acting Director. By September, Director John Squires reported to lawmakers that examination staff had trimmed that volume by about 82,000 over 19 months, bringing the total to roughly 756,000. Yet the agency aims to drive pending filings below 599,000 applications, a level last seen in 2020, according to IPWatchdog.
Meeting that goal requires an attrition rate below 4.8 percent. Instead, agency records show a 12-month average turnover of 7.6 percent through August. Junior examiners leave at an even steeper rate. About 40 percent of new examiners departed during their first year of service between 2021 and 2023. Meanwhile, average pendency means an incoming patent application waits about 18 months before assignment to an examiner.
Search software issues and reduced training
Efforts to accelerate production have added friction inside the examining corps. The office deployed artificial intelligence search tools to assist examiners, but staff and applicants told auditors that the software often produces irrelevant prior art. Examiners must spend extra time vetting search results that do not apply to the claims at issue.
Work conditions have tightened alongside higher production demands. Management reduced initial training for new hires from 16 weeks to eight weeks and dropped instruction hours on subject matter eligibility. Restrictions on telework flexibility followed. Facing increased workloads and strict completion windows, fewer staff members now seek promotions that require higher output quotas.
Curtailed oversight and statutory authority
The drive to clear pending filings also coincided with reduced oversight. The agency stopped publishing results from internal and external quality surveys in 2024 and paused the external survey completely in 2026. Leadership convened only two meetings of the Patent Public Advisory Committee since January 2025, limiting formal feedback from the patent community.
The inquiry itself met initial resistance from agency officials. In December 2025, the office general counsel argued the oversight body lacked authority to conduct an audit requested by Ranking Members Jamie Raskin and Hank Johnson, Jr. The audit office proceeded under its statutory authority in 31 U.S.C. § 117 to review executive agencies. Squires offered no formal response to the report's recommendations on retention risks.
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