Posts Tagged: "USPTO Oversight"

Last week, the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet convened a hearing to perform oversight of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Andrei Iancu fielded questions on Section 101 patent eligibility issues and fraudulent trademark application filings and, while several Representatives on the subcommittee noted Director Iancu’s procedural changes at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), much of the previous backlash to those changes seemed to have dissipated. In his opening statement, Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA), Chairman of the House IP Subcommittee, discussed the impact that issued patents have on small businesses, noting that the first patent granted to a startup results in the business both hiring an average of 16 employees and earning an average of $10.6 million in additional sales within five years. However, Johnson added that recent case law from the U.S. Supreme Court have resulted in major issues with patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, threatening innovation in critical technology areas like medical diagnostics. He was also concerned by a rise in fraudulent trademark filings coming from China that can hurt American businesses trying to register legitimate marks.