Fee Diversion
For many years, Congress has "diverted" about 10% of the fees that the USPTO collected into the general treasury of the United States. In effect, this took money collected from the patent system to use for the general budget. This fee diversion has been generally opposed by patent practitioners (e.g., patent attorneys and patent agents), inventors, the USPTO, as well as former federal judge Paul R. Michel. These stakeholders would rather use the funds to improve the patent office and patent system, such as by implementing the USPTO's 21st Century Strategic Plan. The last six annual budgets of the George W. Bush administration did not propose to divert any USPTO fees, and the first budget of the Barack Obama administration continues this practice; however, stakeholders continue to press for a permanent end to fee diversion.
Read more about this topic: United States Patent And Trademark Office
Famous quotes containing the words fee and/or diversion:
“..for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread, but the wife of another stalks a man’s very life.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 6:26.
“If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)