See also, on the notion of backlog, http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2008/06/patents-delayed-alison-brimelow-worried.html.

However, to suggest as she did an increase in the initial fees to reduce the number of applications so as to get fewer applications – actually without any guarantee whatsoever that they would be “better” – is to favour the affluent and penalise “small inventors”, as they are called, SMEs and inventors from developing countries. Reducing annual fees would also delay the surrender of patent rights of limited value and thus the movement of inventions into the public domain.

According to the report, Ms. Brimelow has also resorted to a large extent to anecdotal evidence of, say, bad behaviour and practice. Of course, a bad behaviour or a practice is not anecdotal to the one who suffers from it, but policy-making should not address it at the expense of the bulk of honest players. Higher initial fees are in any event not the solution.