I doubt very much that the USPTO is getting kickbacks to pass patents through. As I understand it, "number of patents granted" is the metric they use for succes

I doubt very much that the USPTO is getting kickbacks to pass patents through. As I understand it, "number of patents granted" is the metric they use for success, which puts a lot of pressure on the patent examiners at the bottom rung to do very basic research before pushing things through. Basically, there is no incentive for them to do a diligent job, so they don't.