Political Quotes

“The gentlewoman has expressed concern about the fee diversion provision in the manager's amendment. I think it is actually a very good provision; and it will, for the first time, end fee diversion at the Patent and Trademark Office by statute. It accomplishes both our overarching policy goals and maintains congressional oversight. For the first time, we are establishing an exclusive PTO reserve fund that will collect all excess PTO fees and bring an end to fee diversion. It's been expressed on the other side of the aisle that maybe with the authority to set fees that is granted for a limited period of time in this bill, there will be an abuse in the Patent Office. But it can't be abused very much because the fees will still be subject to appropriations here in the Congress. They can't spend them on other things. They can't divert them, but they can put them in escrow, and they can require the PTO to come in and justify those fees before they're authorized. There will be no incentive to have excess fees if there can't be excess expenditures because of congressional oversight. Patent reform has been a long road; and with the inclusion of this provision, we have ensured that all funds collected by the PTO will remain available to them and may not be diverted to any other use.…”