But check out this chart, which shows the supposed success rate of the Patent Office to meet their "goals."

The Patent Office has been concerned about issuing "bad patents."   There are several indications in various Patent Lawyer blogs that examiners have told others that they are being pressured by supervisors to push back on the issuance of patents.  The Patent Office has bragged in public that the number of patents granted has dropped.  But isn't it a good thing for new technology to be rewarded with the issuance of patents?

If the Patent Office's goal is to reduce the number of patents issued, they are certainly meeting that goal.  In Feb of 2008, the Director of the Patent Office remarked, in a prepared statement to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Committee on the Judiciary: 

Mr. Chairman, as we look to the future, we will make every effort to improve on our 
successful record in fiscal year 2007. Our patent examiners completed over 362,000 
patent applications in 2007, the largest number ever, while maintaining for the second 
year in a row an examination compliance rate1 of 96.5 percent, the highest in a quarter of 
a century. The allowance rate for patents is currently 44%. This is in contrast to 
allowance rates in excess of 70% just eight years ago. 

The question then becomes: just how hard will it be to obtain a patent in the next year and the years to follow?  Here is a PDF copy of a Business Week report that sheds even more light on the current problem regarding the Patent Office.