On May 18, 2010, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. And Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith introduced a bill into Congress entitled, “Patent and Trademark office Funding Stabilization Act,” a bill that intends to help the USPTO by giving it fee-setting authority and the authority to prevent the diversion of fees.

Chairman Conyers and Rep. Smith hope the bill could provide the USPTO with reliable and sustainable funding, which could further help the agency by allowing it to hire additional examiners to help reduce the backlog of patent applications and to improve patent quality. In addition to giving the agency fee-setting authority, the bill also would allow the USPTO to impose a 15 percent temporary surcharge on all fees.

According to a press release from the House Committee on the Judiciary, there are more than 750,000 unexamined patent applications, a problem made worse by a fee diversion that has taken millions of dollars from the UPSTO and disbursed to unrelated government programs.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.

SOURCE:  “Conyers and Smith introduce Patent and Trademark Office Funding Stabilization Act,” United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, May 18, 2010 (http://judiciary.house.gov/news/100518.html).