Its appropriations season in Washington, and it promises to be an interesting one for Patent and Trademark Office stakeholders.

H.R. 1561 (The United States Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act) is stalled (see this prior PTP post for a summary of key provisions of H.R. 1561).

S.2809, an appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State (among others), includes interesting developments relating to USPTO fees, but does not include the anti-fee diversion language of H.R. 1561.

Highlights of the fee language in S.2809 include:

1. Establishment of seperate filing, search, and examination fees
2. Establishment of penalties for large applications (the filing fee of an application that exceeds 100 sheets in length is subject to a $250 surcharge for each additional 50 sheets) NOTE: This provision excludes sequence and computer program listings filed in electronic form from the page count calculation
3. Establishment of significant increases in excess claims fees (e.g., $200 for each independent claim in excess of 3)
4. Granting of authority to the Director for giving refunds of search fees for applications abandoned by express declaration
5. Extension of the small entity discount to the fee for recording documents affecting title (e.g., assignments of patent applications and/or patents)

The bill represents a major overhaul of the fee system at the Patent Office. It does not, however, address the fee diversion situation, which is a fundamental focus of H.R. 1561.

S.2809 sits with the Senate Appropriations Committee.