The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is operating a secret program that attorneys say delays the issuance of patents it deems controversial or inconvenient.
It’s called the Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS). References have popped up from time to time in anecdotal accounts and PTO memos, but the program itself is not described in the PTO’s published rules of operation. Recently, however, SAWS has come under scrutiny, and critics argue that it stifles innovation, discriminates against inventors and small companies and ultimately hurts consumers.
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