U.S. patent office shortfall worsens: official | Politics | Reuters

U.S. patent office shortfall worsens: official | Politics | Reuters .

Awww…poor babies. They’re collecting “just” $5.9 million per day (yep, you read right) in fee-based revenue and they’re not happy.

Damn. Let’s do the math. $5.9 million/day times 365 days/year … that’s $2,153,500,000 per year. Not bad. Of course, they’re down from $6.9 million per day … same equation, substitute that number and you get $2,518,500,000. Well, heck, they’re still above $2 billion dollars in fee-based revenue. Of course, it’s $365,000,000 less now than they were collecting in fee-based revenue before the recession (if that’s what we’re in) hit….

Still, I have no sympathy. This agency has more than $2 billion dollars per year in fee-based revenue; I could balance that budget with little difficulty. So suck it up, USPTO, and live within your means, just like the rest of us have to do.