Mirk Buzdum and Dick “Cappy” Capstran, a pair of garage entrepreneurs in Milwaukee, know full well that their designs for drill bits and cutting tools are good.
“Itâ??s obvious that these technologies are valid, because people are stealing them and theyâ??re in production,” Buzdum said.
But their anger isnâ??t directed only at the multinational companies that they say are ripping off their ideas. A big part of the blame, they say, falls on the agency that is supposed to protect them and the rest of the nationâ??s innovators: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The patent applications drafted by Buzdum and Capstran are among the 1.2 million applications pending at the agency – a backlog that was the subject of a Journal Sentinel investigation published in August.