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United States Patent and Trademark Office (view source)
Revision as of 16:06, 8 December 2015
, 16:06, 8 December 2015→Fee Diversion
The USPTO's funding process through congressional appropriations left the Office subject to "fee diversions," when Congress took excess funds accumulated by the USPTO but not requested in the annual budget and appropriated them to the general Treasury fund. This practice of fee diversion helped other sectors of the federal government cover additional expenses without exceeding appropriation limits. The USPTO reacted to this practice by closely estimating expected revenue and matching this estimate with its annual appropriations proposal for Congress.
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1990[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-104/pdf/STATUTE-104-Pg1388.pdf] established the USPTO as a fully fee funded organization. The Leahy-Smith Act America Invents Act created a USPTO reserve fund to hold excess fees collected in a given fiscal year. Although the reserve fund balance may only be appropriated to USPTO activities, the director of theUSPTO must still petition Congress to use these funds in its annual budget request.
==Criticism==
