Groups Want Patent and Trademark Office Exempted from Trump Hiring Freeze
The Innovation Alliance has joined with other patent-protecting groups to ask the Trump Administration to exempt the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from its hiring freeze saying the freeze will add even more "pending" items to the currently overloaded "patent pending" approval process.
That came in a letter to President Donald Trump in which they also said Congress should end the diversion of ISPTO fees. Like the FCC, the USPTO funds itself from fees on users--in the case of the Patent Office that is fees on patent and trademark applications.
The alliance et al. told the President: "If the hiring freeze were to apply to the USPTO, America's inventors would essentially be paying a tax that doesn't contribute to the operations of the USPTO but is diverted to general government spending. Taxing inventors in this way thwarts innovation and harms the economy. Moreover, restricting the USPTO's ability to use its user fee collections for the benefit of patent and trademark applicants, including hiring new examiners, will stymie efforts to improve the total patent pendency rate which is currently 25.6 months, down from 27.4 months just two years ago."