By Donald Zuhn —

Sen. Reid's Cloture Motion Brings Senate Closer to Vote on H.R. 1249

On August 2, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) (at right) presented a cloture motion to bring to a close the debate on the House version of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (H.R. 1249) so that the Senate can proceed to vote on the bill.  The Senate cloture rule (Rule XXII) provides the only process for imposing limits on further consideration of an issue, and requires that a cloture motion (or petition) be supported by at least sixteen Senators.  In the case of Sen. Reid's motion, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), John Kerry (D-MA), Mark Udall (D-CO), Mark Warner (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Max Baucus (D-MT), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA) joined Sen. Reid in signing the cloture petition.  Sen. Reid's motion calls for a vote to invoke cloture on Tuesday, September 6, which requires a three-fifths majority of the Senate.  If cloture is invoked, debate on H.R. 1249 will be limited to thirty hours, no Senator will be allowed to speak on the legislation for more than one hour, and only amendments to the bill presented prior to the cloture vote will be permitted.

Rep. Rogers: Fees Collected by USPTO "Reserved Only for Use By the PTO"

On June 22, the day before the House passed H.R. 1249, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) (at right), the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, sent a letter to the Speaker of the House and the House Majority Leader addressing the USPTO funding provisions of H.R. 1249.  Rep. Rogers, along with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, was primarily responsible for convincing the House to change the USPTO funding provisions of H.R. 1249 so that the Patent Office would require Congressional approval in order to spend all of the fees it collects.  In his letter, Rep. Rogers notes that (emphasis added):

The language [in H.R. 1249] ensures: the PTO budget remains part of the annual appropriations process; all PTO collected fees will be available only for PTO services and activities in support of the fee paying community; and finally, this important agency will continue to be subject to oversight and accountability by the Congress on an annual basis.

To assure that all fees collected for PTO remain available for PTO services, H.R. 1249 provides that if the actual fees collected by the PTO exceed its appropriation for that fiscal year, the amount would continue to be reserved only for use by the PTO and will be held in a "Patent Trademark Fee Reserve Fund".

At the same time, consistent with the language included in H.R. 1249, the Committee on Appropriations will also carry language that will ensure that all fees collected by PTO in excess of its annual appropriated level will be available until expended only to PTO for support services and activities in support of the fee paying community, subject to normal Appropriations Committee oversight and review.

However, the resolution to the debt ceiling crisis may make it difficult (if not impossible) for Rep. Rogers to keep his promise.  Under the legislation that raised the debt ceiling, which was signed into law on August 2, a joint committee of Congress will have to produce debt reduction legislation with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts by November 23, 2011 or face across-the-board cuts of spending, equally split between defense and non-defense programs.  How the joint committee's proposal (or automatic spending cuts) will ultimately impact the funding provisions of H.R. 1249 (if passed by the Senate in September and signed by the President) is yet to be determined.

Washington Post Supports Patent Reform Legislation

In an op-ed piece appearing in Sunday's Washington Post, the newspaper says that President Obama is right when he states that patent reform will allow inventors and entrepreneurs to "cut the red tape" that prevents them from "quickly turning new ideas into thriving businesses."  Arguing that "the patent system has become creaky" since the 1952 Patent Act was passed, the article contends that the Patent Office "struggles under an enormous backlog, takes far too long to approve legitimate patents, and paradoxically at times blesses weak ones that undermine serious innovation and expose legitimate inventors to costly damages after their products have gone to market."  According to the Post, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will "go a long way toward curing these problems."  While conceding that H.R. 1249 "unfortunately weakens an important funding change that would have ensured needed resources for the perennially beleaguered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office," the Post says "[t]he change is unfortunate, but it is a small price to pay for passage of a broad package of changes that should lift burdens that for far too long have stood in the way of innovation and economic growth."