Yesterday, the White House sent its proposed budget for FY2011 to Congress. Included in the budget is a significant increase in funding for the PTO to $2.322 billion, up from $1.887 billion for FY2010. The funding request is a 23% increase from FY2010. The budget is also expected to give the PTO full access to all of the fees that it collects, unlike in other years such as FY2010.
The increase would come not only from anticipated increase in filings, but also from a 15% surcharge to be assessed for patent filings. The surcharge is expected to generate over $200 million in additional revenue.
The budget states that the increased funding “will be used in support of USPTO’s strategic priorities to improve patent pendency, improve examination quality, invest in and improve IT infrastructure and tools and demonstrate global leadership in all aspects of IP policy and development.”
The budget increase should permit the PTO to hire more examiners after facing a hiring freeze in recent years. Director Kappos has also identified the PTO’s computer system as “antiquated” and in serious need of replacement. Unfortunately, that may take several years and hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Obama Administration is on the right track with the PTO budget. Once Congress gets done with it, it could be another story as they seem to like to trim spending in areas such as the PTO.
Nobody likes to to see fee increases, but most PTO users will support a fee hike provided that all of the PTO revenue is used for PTO operations and not siphoned off by Congress. If it reduces pendency and improves quality, I say go for it.
