There is an interesting opinion piece in today’s Silicon Valley Mercury News arguing that the Patent Office ought to create a regional office in Silicon Valley. At present all patent examiners are located in the Washington DC area (the headquarters of the Patent Offce is in Alexandria, Virginia). A previous attempt at starting a Detroit office was put on hold.

The article notes that

With Silicon Valley accounting for 12.5 percent of the nation’s patents last year, this region’s claim for one of the two other offices is unsurpassed. Plus, this area has ample experts who would bring critical knowledge to the patent office. And being closer to a place constantly minting new companies and technologies would keep the patent office on top of the latest innovations.

The main problem with a Silicon Valley is the higher cost of living.. which would mean that it would be difficult to recruit and retain qualified examiners without a pay differential. And what type of pay would be required? The average home in Palo Alto is $1.63 million and in Mountain View is $957.500, for example.

Furthermore, the author  seems to think that the central issue with the patent system is that examiners have insufficient knowledge of current technology. However, as almost all patent pracitioners can attest, the main problems stem from fee diversion (in which Congress takes fees away from the Patent Office) and the irrational “count” system which rewards quantity over quality… neither of which is addressed in the article.