Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> Just a Patent Examiner

Intellectual Property Law

: Just a Patent Examiner

Obama Proposes FY2013 PTO Budget of $2.953 Billion

By just_n_examiner

Secretary of Commerce John Bryson distributed an email to Commerce Department employees today, with the details of President Obama's proposed FY2013 budget for the Department.

The PTO's proposed budget is set at $2.953 billion, the same as the estimate of the Office's fee collections. This is up from the $2.706 billion budgeted in FY2012, which has since been adjusted down to $2.529 billion due to lower than expected fee collections.

The increase in budget will help to pay for enactment of the America Invents Act, including the opening of the new branch in Detroit, as well as a bump from 10,507 to 12,212 full-time employees, aiding the Office's efforts at backlog and pendency reduction. (Well, that's assuming that I'm reading this report correctly).

Of course, this is only a proposed budget, and will certainly not be passed in its present form. Still, if Congress wants to give the Office the resources necessary to carry out its duties, particularly in light of the AIA which it passed last year, you'd hope they might be inclined to allow the Office to put its fee setting authority to good use.

Full post as published by Just a Patent Examiner on February 13, 2012 (boomark / email).