Streamlining the Patent Application Process to Nurture the Innovation of Tomorrow
Summary
To clear a path for the innovations that will fuel our nation’s economic recovery, the Biden-Harris Administration should streamline the patent application process by improving the correspondence between patent claims and the specification, supporting search clarity, and ensuring concise specifications. Not only would this reduce the time lost to bureaucratic paperwork, but these efforts would also give innovators a more efficient road to acquire patents. In turn, applicants, examiners, and the public at large would benefit from the new industries and innovations to come.
AI’s high-stakes outputs directly shape American economic, industrial, and technological outcomes. They must not be accepted entirely on the basis of institutional faith rather than verifiable evidence.
The clearinghouse will also neutrally mediate the assignment of auditors to audits—strengthening independence, trust, and ethical governance across the AI ecosystem.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
Jobseekers, employees at smaller organizations, and local public workers need more than a weekend crash course in AI. They need practice choosing useful tasks, protecting data, testing outputs, and explaining where human judgment remains necessary.