On Wednesday, March 10, 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) announced a joint action plan to reduce overall patent application processing backlogs in both patent offices. As noted in the USPTO announcement (link HERE), “[p]atent backlogs hinder the deployment of innovation and have clear adverse effects on the global economy,” and according to a study by London Economics released on behalf of the UKIPO, which is one of the first studies attempting to quantify the economic impact of patent backlogs, “the cost to the global economy of the delay in processing patent applications may be as much as £7.65 ($11.4) billion each year.” The leaders of both offices (David Kappos of the USPTO and David Lammy, the UK Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property), according to the announcement, “committed both the UKIPO and the USPTO to develop a plan to optimize reuse of work on patent applications that are filed jointly at the USPTO and the UKIPO,” and “[t]o this end, the offices will identify all areas of reutilization potential by the end of this calendar year, and shall pursue measures designed to facilitate maximum reuse by building confidence in the work done by each office.”