In Brief: Patent & Trademark Office reform legislation
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Patent & Trademark Office reform legislation: Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) S 507 is focus of May 7 Senate hearing at 10:00 in Dirksen room 226. The bill would establish the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization as a government corporation. On the House side, Rep. Howard Coble's (R-N.C.) HR 400 passed the floor by a voice vote April 23. The legislation embraced the floor manager's amendment offering a compromise of a proposal submitted by the Administration, which leaves intellectual property policy development to the Commerce department under a new under secretary. Management and operational functions will be vested completely in the PTO led by a director within the office who will be responsible for granting patents and issuing trademarks...