This article which has the subtitle "All-American Foreign Importer?" says:

Wal-Mart stores often are festooned with red, white and blue bunting. Until 1998, store signs urged shoppers to "Buy American." But in 1999, Wal-Mart was the nation's largest importer, according to the Journal of Commerce, with 53 percent of its clothing coming from China, according to a New York Times story last year.

It appears that the outsourcing trend of Walmart is now working its way into the U.S. Patent System. These links confirm the trend:

• Work Sharing and Harmonization between U.S. and Foreign Patent Offices
• IP Australia working on U.S. International Applications
• Contracting Patent Searches to Commercial Firms and to India

This is starting to become a little disturbing.

Tags: patent, patents, intellectual

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