Patent Law Practice Center

House Bill Would Exempt PTO from Sequestration

On Friday, June 28, 2013, three members of the House of Representatives from Northern California submitted a bill called the Patents and Trademarks Encourage New Technology (PATENT) Jobs Act. The purpose of the legislation is to exempt the United States Patent and Trademark Office from sequestration budget cuts and to allow the USPTO full access to the collected user fees.

The text of the bill is not long. The main provisions contained in Section 1 of the bill under the title “Termination of Sequestration in Fiscal Year 2013 for the Patent and Trademark Office,” says:

“Notwithstanding the presidential order issued on March 1, 2013, under section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901a), on and after the date of the enactment of this Act, the budgetary resources sequestered under such order with respect to the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall be available for obligation for the same purpose and in the same manner as if such order had not been issued. The other section of the bill, Section 2, would exempt the USPTO from sequestration budget cuts for fiscal years 2014 through 2021.”

(Pictured: Rep. Zoe Lofgren)

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