Organisations demand Trump ends USPTO hire freeze
The Alliance of US Startups and Inventors for Jobs (USIJ) has joined the Innovation Alliance in a letter to President Donald Trump expressing their concerns about the effect of a hire freeze at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The letter was sent by the Innovation Alliance on Wednesday, April 5. The USIJ joined the patent community in urging Trump to end the hire freeze.
Trump initiated the hire freeze for US federal employees on January 23 this year.
According to the letter, the USPTO is not currently funded by the taxpayer and the office operates “entirely on fees from patent and trademark applications”.
The letter claimed that the government does not always permit the USPTO to keep all of the fees it collects.
From 2010-2014, $409.8 million in user fees were “diverted” from the USPTO to “general government spending”, which contributed to the 540,000 patent backlog at the USPTO, the letter said.
“If the hiring freeze were to apply to the USPTO, America’s inventors would essentially be paying a tax that doesn’t contribute to the operations of the USPTO but is diverted to general government spending,” the letter added.
Such a move, according to the letter, “thwarts innovation and harms the economy”.
Restricting the USPTO’s ability to use its fees for the benefit of patent and trademark applicants, including by hiring new examiners, will “stymie” efforts to improve the total patent pendency rate, which is currently 25.6 months, down from 27.4 months just two years ago.
“The United States should have the best patent system in the world, and not allowing the USPTO to hire needed examiners will cause the US to fall farther behind,” the letter said.
The letter was signed by companies such as InterDigital and associations including the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
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