The U.S. Commerce Department released yesterday a comprehensive report, entitled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus,” which finds that intellectual property (IP)-intensive industries support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion dollars to, or 34.8 percent of, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). “This first of its kind report [...]
The US Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has provided a 50% reduction in patent application fees for “small entity” applicants. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”) created a new classification called a “micro entity”. A micro entity is expected to pay fees discounted by 75%. The discounted fees will apply to filing, searching, examination, issue, [...]
In a financial move that could only make sense to Washington, DC politicians, the federal government, under H.R. 1473 (the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act) has cut $100 million from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Budget. The move is purely political because the USPTO budget is derived directly from fees collected from inventors [...]
Tomorrow the House is expected to take up a bill that would allow the US Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) to set its own fees for its operations, but would not bar Congress from diverting some of the fees for other purposes. Both the American Intellectual Property Law Association (“AIPLA”) and The Coalition for 21st [...]
