By Nguyen Nguyet Dzung
Pending patent applications are those, at one point in time,
which have been filed with a certain patent office but not yet
examined. Although there have not been any clear
statistics, the backlog of unexamined patent applications at many
patent offices is huge. According to Wikipedia, the backlog was
said to be 4.2 million worldwide in 2007, and, as of 2009, it
reportedly continues to grow. Alone, the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) is reported to have, as of 2009, a backlog
of more than 700,000 patent applications.
As another example, the National Office of Intellectual Property
of Vietnam (NOIP) has been reported, as of 2010, to have 70% of the
total filed applications being pending and unexamined (2010 Annual
Report, NOIP). That is, only 30% of the applications filed were
granted patents. Delay in patent prosecution and examination is one
of the greatest problems with the Vietnam patent system that may
cause negative
