I think they're half right, the turnaround time for a decision is too long, but the solution is surely to turn away the obvious patents on day 1 to get them out

I think they're half right, the turnaround time for a decision is too long, but the solution is surely to turn away the obvious patents on day 1 to get them out of the queue and discourage further frivolous applications. The cynic in me says that this is bureaucracy 101, where the bigger the problem, the more staff you need to solve it, the more staff you need to manage, the more important you become.. ergo the answer is to exacerbate the problem rather than solving it. I've also heard that they don't get paid for appeals, so rejecting a patent is more work than accepting it, which could also be shaping the landscape. Either way something is seriously messed up in the US patent office and it's effecting the world in a bad way.