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April 29, 2004

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES PTO ANTI-FEE DIVERSION BILL

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed on April 29, 2004 H.R. 1561 (which passed the House on March 3 by a 379-28 vote) that raises fees for the Patent and Trademark Office and lets the agency keep its own money.  The Senate Judiciary Committee vote was unanimous and the Senate is expected to pass the bill as well.  According to govexec.com:

The bill would generate about $200 million in patent fees and would allow the Patent and Trademark Office to retain the funds, instead of having the money go into Treasury's general fund.

During the last 12 years, according to the 21st Century Intellectual Property Coalition, some $650 million has been diverted from the patent office to unrelated programs. The coalition represents a wide range of companies, including software, chemical, agricultural, paper and pharmaceutical firms, and trade groups, such as the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Aerospace Industries Association and Semiconductor Industry Association.

Such diversions of funds are scornfully referred to as the "inventors tax" because the diversions were used to help fund highway projects and other general expenditures, including pork barrel projects.  Eliminating such diversions will help to eliminate the backlog at the PTO (ability to reinvest the funds for operations) as well as improve the quality of the services the PTO provides. 

According to one of our clients who heard the news, "Oh, happy day!"  Exactly.

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 06:25 PM.
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