WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and committee member Chris Coons (D-Del.) sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross questioning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s participation in the Department of Commerce’s initiative to develop shared services for all of the Department’s bureaus, called “Enterprise Services.” The senators are requesting further information from Secretary Ross to ensure that the USPTO is not paying more into setting up these services than it will get in return. Such fee diversion may also violate statutory provisions providing for the USPTO’s operational independence. Those provisions are intended to guarantee that the fees the USPTO collects from users of its services are used solely to fund the USPTO and further its mission of producing high quality patents and trademarks to support American competitiveness.
Read the text of the letter
