Forbes: back to the past on "low quality patent" argument?

The text in The Patent Drain on Economic Growth


Over the years, however, the system has broken down in a number of ways. An overworked Patent and Trademark Office issued too many patents of questionable quality and in markets (software is the prime example) where the very idea of patentability is questionable. An explosion of low quality patents ignited an explosion of litigation, and today the legitimacy of IP itself is under assault.



evokes the long discredited analysis of Quillen and Webster. See 4 Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop. 108 (2004-2005).
But see 23 Fed. Cir. B.J. 179 (2013) , which cites in note 4:

See Cecil D. Quillen, Jr. & Ogden H. Webster, Continuing Patent Applications and Performance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 11 Fed. Cir. B.J. 1 (2001) [hereinafter Quillen I]; Cecil D. Quillen, Jr. et al., Continuing Patent Applications and Performance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office--Extended, 12 Fed. Cir. B.J. 35 (2002) [hereinafter Quillen II]; Cecil D. Quillen, Jr. & Ogden H. Webster, Continuing Patent Applications and Performance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office--Updated, 15 Fed. Cir. B.J. 635 (2006) [hereinafter Quillen III]; Cecil D. Quillen, Jr. & Ogden H. Webster, Continuing Patent Applications and Performance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office--One More Time, 18 Fed. Cir. B.J. 379 (2009) [hereinafter Quillen IV]. See Quillen IV, at 380-83 and accompanying notes, for an overview of these previous Articles.

but does not cite any criticism of these articles.

See also 4 Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop. 186 for the discussion of the infamous "footnote 22" in Mark A. Lemley and Kimberley L. Moore, Ending Abuse of Patent Continuations, 84 B. U. L. Rev. 63 (2004).