GovTrack’s Bill Summary
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H.R. 5874 (111th): United States Patent and Trademark Office Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010
- Introduced:
- Jul 27, 2010 (111th Congress, 2009–2010)
- Sponsor:
- Rep. Alan Mollohan [D-WV1]
- Status:
- Signed by the President
- Slip Law:
- This bill became Pub.L. 111-224.
The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.
Library of Congress Summary
The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.
8/10/2010. Makes supplemental FY2010 appropriations of $129 million to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of the Department of Commerce. Rescinds the same amount of appropriations, currently available under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 for periodic censuses and programs, from the Bureau of the Census.
House Republican Conference Summary
The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/2/hr5874.
Background
According to CRS, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examines and approves applications for patents on claimed inventions and registers trademarks. It also supports other federal departments and agencies to protect American intellectual property. The USPTO is funded by user fees paid by customers that are designated as "offsetting collections" and subject to spending limits established by the Committee on Appropriations. H.R. 5874 would appropriate rescinded Census funds for the USPTO, which would be offset to as much extent possible by offsetting collections for the duration of FY 2010.
Summary
H.R. 5874 would appropriate $129 million to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and would rescind $129 million in appropriated funding from the Bureau of the Census.
The bill specifies that the sum appropriated shall be reduced as offsetting collections are received by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office during FY 2010. Additionally, should the total amount of offsetting fee collections be less than $2 billion, the appropriated sum would be reduced accordingly.
Cost
The Congressional Budget Office has not produced a score for this bill as of press time.
House Democratic Caucus Summary
The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.
So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.
We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.
The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:
Slip Laws
Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.
- Public Law 111-117:
H.R. 3288 (111th): Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010
United States Code
The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)
- Title 15: COMMERCE AND TRADE
- Chapter 22: TRADEMARKS
- Subchapter III: GENERAL PROVISIONS
- Section 1113: Fees
- Title 35: PATENTS
- Part I: UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
- Chapter 4: PATENT FEES; FUNDING; SEARCH SYSTEMS
- Section 41: Patent fees; patent and trademark search systems
- Part IV: PATENT COOPERATION TREATY
- Chapter 37: NATIONAL STAGE
- Section 376: Fees