This requires both an increase in examination capacity achieved by increasing strategic hiring and creating better working conditions to decrease attrition, and improved efficiency achieved by streamlining theexaminationprocess and providing better tools and IT infrastructure.
It makes sense that the value of companies is based upon the right to exclude all others for 15 years or more (U.S. patents are valid for 20 years from the filing date, but theexaminationprocess in the Patent Office will eat up a significant amount of time).
The USPTO examinationprocess for design patents used to take over a year, which would often exceed the life expectancy or actual lifespan of many designs in the rapidly changing world of fashion.