Mr. Laverone, of California, Mr. Schmidt, Ms. Wood, Mr. Mers, Mr. Heortman, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Cloe, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Mondragon, Mr. Garwood, Mr. keiffer, and Mr. Forsyth submit to the House Committee on Appropriations

A BILL

To provide funding to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the purpose of speeding up the processing of pending patents.

Be it encated by the President of the United States and both houses of Congress assembled.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE

THis bill may be referred to as the "US Patent Support Act"

SECTION 2. FINDINGS

The Congress finds that,

1. The economy of the United States of America is primarily driven by the development of new products

2. Patents issued by the United States provide a necessary protection for intellectual property, and help encourage research and development.

3. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has more than five-hundred-thousand (500,000) patent applications awaiting processing, and that this number is expected to continue growing.

4. The United States Patent and Trademark Office expects the wait period for patent approval to extend to as much as five (5) years.

5. This problem can be traced to bugetary deficentcies and a lack of clerks to process the applications.

6. As much as $650 million collected in User Fees paid by patent applicants is used to fund programs unrelated to the USPTO in any way, shape, or form.

SECTION 3. DEFINITONS

1. USER FEE is defined as a surcharge payed by patent applicants to the USPTO upon filing of a new patent.

SECTION 4. USE OF USER FEES BY THE GOVERNMENT

The User Fees charged by the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall be used soley for the purposes of paying off expenses incurred by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Upon encatment of this bill, the federal govenrment is expressly prohibited from using revenue derived from said User Fees to pay expenses incurred by programs not related to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Upon enactment, the USPTO shall submit to the Congress an annual report containing reccomendations for the size of the fees to be payed by patent applicants. Thses reccomendations shall go into effect upon approval of Congress.

SECTION 5. ENACTMENT

This bill, upon approval by the President of the United States and both houses of the Congress of the United States, shall go into effect March 1, 2005.

Mr. Speaker,

I STRONGLY support this bill which will provide funding to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It is ridiculous for an inventor to have to wait for five years to have their inventions patented. Adequate funding will hopefully speed up the patent processing. That being said, I urge my fellow congressmen to vote favorably on it as well.

Mr. Speaker,

I agree strongly with my fellow representative. This bill will greatly increase the efficency of the US patent office while having little effect on the economy. As such, I hope all of us may vote favorably on it.

Mr. Speaker,

I join my colleagues across in support of this bill. I urge that this body pass it.

I Yield.

Mr. Speaker,

I motion for unanimous consent.

I yield.

Mr. Speaker,

I second the motion for uc.

I yield.

Mr. Speaker,

I also second the motion for Unanimous consent.

I yield.

Mr. SPT,
The motion for UC has been numerously seconded, I nevertheless am compelled to go on record in support of this basic common sense approach to patent administration.

The UC, and the nature of this bill are a good opportunity to move expeditiously, and devote time in this body to more thorny issues that lack the clarity of the present case.

I yield

Mr. Speaker,

First, as we all should know by now, there is no need to second a motion for unanimous consent.

Second, I object to the call for unanimous consent. I object because this bill does not do what it says it should. A technical requirement about budget line items is not going to speed up the backlog at the patent office. But I have an amendment that will.

I move to amend the bill as follows:

To replace the following:

with the following:

Mr Speaker

I 2nd and yield

The following amendment has been passed

the original bill

the proposed amendment

Mr. Speaker,

Now that the amendment has fixed the previously mentioned problem, I move for Unanimous Consent.

I yield.

Mr. Speaker,

I second the motion for UC.

I yield.

Mr. Speaker,

I object to the unanimous consent motion. I believe that this House should be allocating funds to higher priorities. I doubt that increasing the funding for the Patient and Trademark Office will speed up the process. There are reasons that the process is lengthy, it is a comprehensive process. The government must balance speed with responsibility. Despite this I simply believe the legislation is a poor allocation of funds that should be spent in other areas of a higher priority. Americans are concerned with funding education and social security. Let us make this our priority and stop wasteful spending that is unlikely to achieve results. I urge the members of this House to vote no.

I yield.

Mr Speaker,
Just checking here, but does the gentleman from Minnesota realize we are talking about 1.1 million dollars here?

I yield.