Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke promised the United States Senate that if the USPTO is given its requested FY2011 budget of $ 2.3 billion (up roughly 20% from the ~$1.9 billion budgets for FY2010 and FY2009), the USPTO will reduce total patent application pendency from ~60 months today to 12 months by FY2014.

Although admirable, this "promise" appears to be impossible to fulfill, unless the US ignores its 100+ year old obligations under the Paris Convention and eliminates the ~15 year old statutory right to file a provisional patent application.