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News  
Overview  

In existence for more than 200 years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the government agency responsible for processing patent and trademark applications and disseminating related information to the public. Patents are a type of constitutionally sanctioned property right granted to inventors for exclusive development and deployment of their discoveries. Located in the Department of Commerce, the agency has been fully fee-funded since 1991.

                                      
Not without its fair share of controversy, the USPTO has long been criticized for long waiting times, inefficiency, and granting patents for unjustifiably ridiculous “inventions.” Although the Office only grants patents and trademarks valid in the U.S., its issue of U.S.-company patents for genetic modifications of biotechnology in foreign countries makes it susceptible to criticism of facilitating biopiracy, and makes it part of a larger debate over international intellectual property. Recently the agency had its statutory wings clipped by a U.S. district court that ruled the agency had gone too far in changing rules to the patent applications process meant to prevent abuse and cut back on bureaucracy. Current Congressional reforms are on the table, some aiming at a major overhaul of the patent system, especially with regard to patent infringement litigation.
 
History  

USPTO history spans more than 200 years. In 1790, President George Washington established the first Patent Act, under which the Secretary of State and Executive signed off on patents. The responsibility was soon transferred to clerks in the State Department, and in 1802 given to the newly created role of clerk in the Department of State, which became the first patent office. Trademark registration was added to the Office’s functions in 1881.

 
The USPTO has issued more than 6.3 million patents since the Patent Act of 1790, and generally receives more than 326,000 patent applications and 232,000 trademark applications per year.
 
Statutory Authority
15 U.S.C. 1051-1127 contains provisions of the Trademark Act of 1946 that govern the administration of the trademark registration system of the Patent and trademark Office.
15 U.S.C. 1511 states that the Patent and Trademark Office is under the jurisdiction and supervision of the Department of Commerce.
35 U.S.C. contains basic authorities for administration of patent laws, derived from the Act of July 19, 1952, and subsequent enactment. Revenues from fees are available, to the extent provided for in appropriations acts, to the Commissioner to carry out the activities of the Office. The Patent and Trademark Office is authorized to charge international fees for activities undertaken pursuant to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Deployment of automated search systems of the Office to the public is authorized.
44 U.S.C. 1337-1338 contains authority to print patents, trademarks, and other matters relating to the business of the Office.
 
 
What it Does  

Patents

Patents are a property right issued by the USPTO to inventors, defined as “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the U.S. or “importing” it into the U.S. Patents are only applicable within the U.S., its territories and possessions. The USPTO has three years to issue a patent, which usually last 20 years from the date of filing. Once issued, responsibility for enforcing the patent is with the recipient.
 
There are three types of patents issued by USPTO:
·        Utility patents are granted to one who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.”
·        Design patents are granted for a “new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.
·        Plant patents “may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.”
 
Other criteria for judging patentability require that it be “novel” and “nonobvious,” and the invention must be described beforehand in enough detail to enable use for its intended purpose.
           
Patent Laws
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate patent law: “Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Patent law specifies the subject matter for which patents can be issued and conditions for patentability.
           
Existing law provides that anyone who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent.” In this language “process” is legally defined as “a process, act or method,” including industrial or technical processes. This and the other classes of subject matter provided for (machine, manufacture, composition of matter) together are meant to cover most all man-made things and related processes. A major exception is made for inventions solely intended for “special nuclear material” or atomic weaponry, which are not patentable.
 
Patent law requires subject matter be “useful,” meaning it has a useful purpose including “operativeness” (an invention must perform its intended purpose in order to be patentable). Further, a complete description of the invention or manufacture is needed to warrant a patent.
 
Over time, court decisions have determined limits of the field of patentable subject matter, holding that laws of nature, physical phenomena and abstract ideas or not eligible. Raw natural products of nature are not patentable, but DNA and genetic modifications of natural phenomena become patentable when they have been isolated, purified or modified to result in a unique form. Regulations regarding the patenting of gene technology are still extremely controversial and evolving. (See biotechnology in controversy section)