Legislation to Protect USPTO from Sequestration

Three Congressional Members from California, Honda, Lofgren, and Eshoo, have proposed legislation to protect the United States Patent Office (USPTO) from sequestration.  The Act is designated as the "Patents and Trademarks Encourage New Technology Jobs Act" or "PATENT Jobs Act" for short.  In summary the bill would protect the USPTO from being subject to sequester cuts currently requiring $150 million in the agency's funding.

The USPTO is entirely funded by fees paid by patent filers as such it does not fall into the same government spending as other areas of government.  These fees are used solely to carry out USPTO operations hence they should not be appropriated for other areas of government.  This bill would prevent sequestration of USPTO revenues.

The bill found bipartisan support from members of the California delegation to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, they submitted a bipartisan letter to the committee: LETTER

Congressional Representative Mike Honda comments:  LINK