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15 October 2018Patents

USPTO fee-setting bill clears the Senate

The US Senate has passed a bill seeking to extend the US Patent and Trademark Office’s ( USPTO) ability to set its own fees.

The Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success ( Success) Act passed through the Senate on Friday, October 12.

If it is signed by US President Donald Trump, the bill will extend the authority of the USPTO to set and adjust fees for obtaining and renewing patents and trademarks that offset its operating costs.

The office’s authority to set these fees expired in September 2018, as prescribed by the America Invents Act (AIA), which was signed in 2011.

Under the new Success Act, this would be amended by giving the USPTO authority over fees for another eight years, until September 2026.

However, fees may only be set or adjusted “to recover the aggregate estimated costs to the office for processing, activities, services, and materials relating to patents (in the case of patent fees) and trademarks (in the case of trademark fees)”.

This would include administrative costs.

In addition, the bill would also require the USPTO to conduct a study into the number of patents applied for and obtained by women, minorities and veterans, and by small businesses owned by these categories.

“The report would include recommendations on ways to promote participation in entrepreneurship activities and increase patent filings by those groups,” said the bill.

According to the USPTO, studies have shown that there is a “significant gap” in the number of patents applied for and obtained by women and minorities when compared with other groups.

The office also said that innovative small businesses contribute 20% towards the total number of new jobs in the US each year. These businesses depend on patent protection to enable them to commercialise new technologies, added the USPTO.

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