Proposed House Legislation Allows USPTO to Set Fees but Does Not Prevent Congressional Diversion

Tomorrow the House is expected to take up a bill that would allow the US Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") to set its own fees for its operations, but would not bar Congress from diverting some of the fees for other purposes.

Both the American Intellectual Property Law Association ("AIPLA") and The Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform ("CCPR") oppose the proposed legislation.  The CCPR includes major companies such as DuPont, General Electric, Motorola, Merc and 3M.

The USPTO is in drastic need of reformation.  The AIPLA and the CCPR are in favor of legislation that would allow the USPTO to set its own fees for operations, but the legislation needs to prohibit Congress from diverting fees collected by the USPTO to other government programs.  Since 1982, Congress has diverted over $900 milliion from the USPTO.  Those fees were paid by inventors, patent owners and trademark applicants.  The fees should be used to pay examiners, increase the number of examiners and upgrade the antiquated Information Technology infrastructure of the USPTO. 

Unless Congress is prohibited from diverting funds from the USPTO, the bill would simply turn the USPTO into a cash cow to be used as desired by Congress for programs that are unrelated to innovation and entrepreneurship in American.