Complaint Review: CARDINAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY - CARDINAL LAW GROUP - Evanston Illinois

The PCT program is abusive, the one thing that needs to be done is procurement at the USPTO needs to be notified. Hope Smith (571-272-6565) has to by law investigate all claims made about companies that they have under contract. They have not received any complaints so far except mine. If the person who wrote this has a complaint as well they need to contact procurement as to what is going on, otherwise CIP gets to continue to abuse people. My letter is below and I will be sending it off to the Dept. of Labor since they have violated federal labor laws by having paid people less money then minimum wage. I call this a slave labor program.


Dear USPTO Hope Smith
 
I am writing the letter to disclose abuses by companies you hired to write PCT reports. The position is a lie and is tantamount to slave labor/indentured servitude. On many occasions I have performed work that took so long to complete that I made less then minimum wage. The contract stated I would make $300 per day, $78,000 pear year, no vacation, holidays, sick leave, or any other benefit besides health insurance. I made less than $35,000 last year and I am on par for making the same amount this year.

The position is designed for writing PCT reports, the searcher and writer get $300, and the reviewer gets $125. The problem with this is that the number of claims and the difficulty of the search could take up to 5 days or more for a search to be completed. The number of claims do matter. Private searches by companies are done by the number of claims, yet PCT searches are paid per search, even if it is 150 claims and 5 days of work it is still just $300. The USPTO confirmed to me that they do not pay their employees on a case per case basis since some cases take a long time, and nobody would work for them if that was the pay. So if the USPTO doesn't pay their own employees on a case per case basis, and private search firms don't charge on a case per case basis either, then why would the PCT program do this unless there was a desire to abuse people.

The reviewers are typically attorneys that do not understand science or engineering. Many reviewers send a case back asking for changes that do not make sense to those with experience in the field. Since the two companies doing PCT searches are both privately owned search firms the lawyers are always correct. Fighting over and over with inexperienced attorneys over their lack of education and/or experience or worse teaching them the science so they understand it and pass the case adds to the time spent at the positions, and lowers the overall wage.

The reviewers are also the classifiers and searchers themselves. They classify a case and then have the option to choose the cases they want, so only long and difficult cases are left over for the rest. Management swears they have people doing a case per day, but if you question them about case size they insist that is irrelevant. If case size didn't matter then why do private searchers and USPTO employees are not paid on a case per case basis (see above)?

So all in all the positions is a lie that is tantamount to slave labor, I personally have spent 10 days and over 100 hours on a case to just get paid $300, that is $3 per hour and much less then minimum wage. The position is not a case per day position and there is no working out in the wash. If the position was a case per day position then for every two day case I have I would end up with two cases taking a half day each. Whereas I have gotten many 2 day cases I have never had 2 cases in one day, and I have had about 3 cases that were half day searches. I have had many 2, 3 and even 4 day cases, not many 1 day or 8 hour cases. Finally I would like to point out to make the money I do make I work on Christmas, Easter, Memorial day, 4th of July.... There is not a day I do not work and since there is no vacation I have not had a vacation in several years since if I do I go hungry, or can't pay rent. As it is I cannot pay student loans, doctors, dentist or even by food this month without borrowing money.

It is a lawyer run business where scientists are indentured to the lawyers and the lawyers have no clue about science or engineering. For some reason I don't think this was it. If the contract I signed is invalid then the USPTO should not have allowed them the manage this program, nor take my finger prints and call me a USPTO subcontractor.

Anonymous.

I read this report, and as a former searcher for Cardinal, I would say most of the business practices are true, including the inflated starting salaries and inconsistent supervision. However, I think the part about people practicing law without a license is silly, because a law license is not needed to perform (or review) a patent search, to the best of my knowledge. In fact, most patent examiners are not attorneys. Finally, whoever wrote this ought to be ashamed of herself for the blatant xenophobia displayed in her entry. Cardinal is a crappy company who treats their employees like Kleenex. Still, if you have a problem with them, stick to the facts, and not where their staff comes from. -Michael p.s. Also, if Jodi-ann follows through on her plan of retaliatory bar complaints, she may risk her own law license.

Hello my name is Tabor K and I hold matriculation in the computer science. I have been of knowledge of the Cardinal Inteligent Property for years, and I have never had any problem. My wife and I moved here from Uzbekistan and this was an exceiting Opportunity. Currently, it is my pleasure to have worked on the Patent Searches we do four patent searches every three week or so, and for this, I earn the amount of $1200 dollars every month! It only takes me about two or three days or about 30 clock hours per search so I am fortunate and able to make a lot of money! Thank you Cardinal Law Group for being the proveider of help and assistance to the US Immigrantion community!

Hello my name is Tabor K and I hold matriculation in the computer science. I have been of knowledge of the Cardinal Inteligent Property for years, and I have never had any problem. My wife and I moved here from Uzbekistan and this was an exceiting Opportunity. Currently, it is my pleasure to have worked on the Patent Searches we do four patent searches every three week or so, and for this, I earn the amount of $1200 dollars every month! It only takes me about two or three days or about 30 clock hours per search so I am fortunate and able to make a lot of money! Thank you Cardinal Law Group for being the proveider of help and assistance to the US Immigrantion community!

Hello my name is Tabor K and I hold matriculation in the computer science. I have been of knowledge of the Cardinal Inteligent Property for years, and I have never had any problem. My wife and I moved here from Uzbekistan and this was an exceiting Opportunity. Currently, it is my pleasure to have worked on the Patent Searches we do four patent searches every three week or so, and for this, I earn the amount of $1200 dollars every month! It only takes me about two or three days or about 30 clock hours per search so I am fortunate and able to make a lot of money! Thank you Cardinal Law Group for being the proveider of help and assistance to the US Immigrantion community!

Hello my name is Tabor K and I hold matriculation in the computer science. I have been of knowledge of the Cardinal Inteligent Property for years, and I have never had any problem. My wife and I moved here from Uzbekistan and this was an exceiting Opportunity. Currently, it is my pleasure to have worked on the Patent Searches we do four patent searches every three week or so, and for this, I earn the amount of $1200 dollars every month! It only takes me about two or three days or about 30 clock hours per search so I am fortunate and able to make a lot of money! Thank you Cardinal Law Group for being the proveider of help and assistance to the US Immigrantion community!