Statement of Administration Policy: S. 793 - Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Authorization Act of 1991

(Senate)
(DeConcini (D) Arizona and Hatch (R) Utah)

The Administration has no objection to Senate passage of S. 793, but strongly recommends that it be amended prior to enactment to:

—   Increase the amount of fee income that would be generated to $432 million to maintain current operations. The lack of sufficient fee income for the PTO could result in a deterioration in the services it provides.

—   Permit the PTO to adjust certain patent and trademark fees annually beginning on October 1, 1992, to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index during the previous year. As currently drafted, no adjustments could be made until October 1, 1994. The PTO would not be able to improve services or programs or even to adjust for the effects of inflation on its current programs. Hence, the Office either would have to reduce services in FYs 1993 and 1994, or the law would have to be amended to adjust the fees.

—   Provide a technical correction in section 2(b) so that patent and trademark fees not subject to appropriation in that section are available directly to the PTO without further legislative action.

Scoring for Purposes of Pay-As-You-Go

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) requires that all revenue and direct spending legislation meet a pay-as-you-go requirement. That is, no such bill should result in an increase in the deficit; and if it does, it must trigger a sequester if it is not fully offset. S. 793 would provide for fees for the activities of the Patent and Trademark Office. OMB's preliminary estimate is that S. 793, with the proposed technical correction, would not result in an increase in the deficit, since new fee collections will offset expenditures.