House Budget Committee sets out plans for independent USPTO
The House Budget Committee released a budget blueprint for “building a better America” on Friday, proposing that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should become an independent agency.
As part of the 63-page plan for fiscal responsibility (pdf), page 50 proposed the elimination of “overlap” and consolidation of “necessary Department of Commerce (DoC) functions into other departments”.
The USPTO is part of the DoC.
According to the blueprint: “Since its establishment in 1903, the Commerce Department has expanded in size and scope to include many activities better suited at other agencies. The Department of Commerce and its various agencies and programmes are rife with waste, abuse, and duplication.”
The debate about reform of the USPTO has been going on for a while.
As reported by WIPR in July last year, the USPTO was asked by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to implement reforms in order to boost patent quality.
It was asked to implement guidance on patent quality and ensure examiners have sufficient time to review applications after a near 150% rise in patent lawsuits between 2007 and 2015.
According to the GAO report, released last year, the USPTO could improve its operations and reduce the need for lawsuits by implementing a consistent definition for patent quality.
Additionally the USPTO has not properly addressed the time constraints faced by examiners or clamped down on wordy and broad patent applications, the GAO said.
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