In a material and psychological blow to inventors, President
Clinton recently proposed to take $92 million out of the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO) surcharge income of $119
million. Many believe the budget cut will result in delays in
patent approvals and an increase in the fees charged to maintain
patents over a 20-year period.
This reappropriation of funds will hamper automation efforts,
contends Lisa-Joy Zgorski of the PTO, who says, "It's
clear that, in the face of these cuts, patent pendency will
increase."
And yet the damage comes not just in the injury but also in the
insult. In 1991, Congress set up the PTO to be a self-supporting
government agency and raised patent application fees by 69 percent
to cover operating costs and improve services for inventors. Over
the past few years, however, inventors have watched as the
office's so-called surplus funds have been diverted to Commerce
State Justice programs or used by Congress in an attempt to balance
the federal budget. "These problems should be funded by
taxpayers' money," says Robert Lougher, founder of the
Inventors Awareness Group in Westfield, Massachusetts. "But
they're financed by a small segment of our society: the
inventor."
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In essence, "people are paying taxes as individuals and
corporations and then paying taxes when they file patent
applications," says Joanne Hayes-Rines, president of the
United Inventors Association of the USA. "[Members of
Congress] could be honest and say there's a tax on patent
applications, but they're not that honest."
Industry insiders feel the PTO can scarcely afford to see that
money dispersed. With the number of patent applications growing by
10 percent every year, certain time-saving PTO programs are
desperately needed, maintains Lougher.
Independent inventors are perhaps the hardest hit by the cuts.
"Every time the government does this, the PTO is forced to
raise its fees, and the ones hurt the most are the small,
independ-ent inventors," says Lougher. "The PTO has
priced itself out of range for many inventors."
While the PTO budget cut is not completely new--Congress
diverted $54 million of the $115 million in the PTO's surcharge
fund last year--the dig is that this latest, more severe proposal
was handed down by Clinton himself. "The most important
element in the president's [agenda] is to balance the federal
budget," says Zgorski, "and therefore we'll grin and
bear it."
Inventors' advocates are not as easily soothed. "The
concept of covert double taxing would anger anybody," says
Hayes-Rines, who urges inventors to write to their Congressional
representatives and to align themselves with an organization that
will keep them informed about the issues. "Inventors are easy
[targets] because they're not part of a [formalized]
group."
Lougher sees this as an injustice Americans should not permit.
"Our economy is based on new products and new technologies,
many of which come from the independent inventor," says
Lougher. "If you interrupt that process, we're going to
have fewer new products. Everyone [will feel] it down the
line."
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