CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 14, 2011 – 12:15 p.m.
Fee Issue Keeps Patent Bill Off Floor
By Keith Perine, CQ Staff
Senior House Republicans hoped to break an impasse on a patent overhaul bill by Wednesday, but a dispute over user fees threatens to prevent leaders from scheduling floor action.
The GOP has touted the bill (
But opposition by some leading members of their caucus — including the Budget and Appropriations committee chairmen — to a provision that would allow the Patent and Trademark Office to keep the user fees it collects has stalled the bill and leaves its fate in question. A Rules Committee meeting on the bill set for Tuesday was postponed indefinitely.
“Fee diversion is the issue,” said House Judiciary Chairman
Smith is negotiating with the patent office and his GOP opponents on possible changes to the fee provisions.
Proponents say the legislation, which would be the biggest overhaul of patent law in a half century, is designed to promote innovation, economic growth and competitiveness. The bill would change procedures for issuing patents and for challenging their validity once they are issued, and would change the basis for awarding patents from “first to invent” to “first inventor to file.”
The biggest remaining sticking point is the provision that would let the Patent and Trademark Office keep all the fees it collects. Currently, the money is handed over to the Treasury, and the office receives an appropriation. Proponents say the provision is a crucial part of the bill, necessary to help the patent office speed up the roughly 35 months it takes to process a patent application. They say the office needs more money, staff and technology to improve operations.
But the critics — including Budget Chairman
Rogers said Tuesday that letting the patent office keep the fees it collects is a “non-starter” for him. He said negotiators were trying to work out some compromise, though he did not elaborate.
House Speaker
House Republican aides said Boehner is staying neutral in the dispute.
“The Speaker is not on anyone’s side,” a senior Republican aide said. “He is the judge and jury.”
It is not clear how Smith and the patent office could fashion compromise language that would win over critics while preserving existing support, in the House as well as in the Senate, which passed a similar bill (
Fee Issue Keeps Patent Bill Off Floor
Earlier this week, Smith filed a manager’s amendment to the bill that would add to the fees section an explicit mandate that the patent office director testify before the Appropriations or Judiciary committees upon request.
Virginia Republican
Smith and his allies have been trying to pass a broad patent overhaul bill for years, and the measure is closer than it ever has been to enactment. But the language ensuring that the patent office can keep its fees is a central element; without it, the legislation is unlikely to become law.
Smith is also trying to fend off bipartisan opposition to the bill because of several other provisions. Among them: language that would change the basis for awarding patents from “first to invent” to “first inventor to file,” and a section of the bill that would create a new process for reviewing financial services-related “business method” patents.
Alan K. Ota contributed to this story.