Examiner Bilks USPTO

An unnamed patent examiner who logged low performance evaluations and had a handful of reprimands was also falsifying time records, a recent Inspector General’s report found. Notably, it took a co-worker whistleblower to reveal that “Examiner A” had falsely reported at least 730 hours of time and attendance – about 43 percent of his total work hours – adding up to $25,500 in fraudulent pay. The whistleblower’s anonymous note to supervisors alleged that Examiner A “never shows up to work,” and “seems to get away with anything.” Examiner A opted to resign rather than review and comment on the IG’s findings. Gene Quinn at IP Watchdog ponders whether this case of outrageous abuse is an indictment of the USPTO’s work from home program.