Note: This story has been updated to clarify the nature of the misused funds.
Over the course of more than four years, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office knowingly wasted and misused more than $5 million in federal resources by paying salaries to paralegals who had so little work to do, they used the time to watch television, do laundry, surf the Internet, go on Facebook, shop online and exercise, an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce has revealed.
