David Kappos (Marquette University Law School)
The Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, David Kappos, asked for more funding in a hearing on Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee’s new subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet.
Kappos, who is also the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property, emphasized the role of the patent office as “the greatest job creator no one has ever heard of.”
“I’ve talked to CEOs, small companies that come up to me and say I recently got a patent from your agency, and when I got that patent, I was suddenly able to get my next round of venture funding,” Kappos said. “I was able to build my business on it and put people to work.”
The panel’s chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), observed that, “Today, knowledge moves the world.”
“In 1947, IP derived less than 10 percent of all American exports,” Goodlatte said. “Today, that figure is well over 50 percent. We all understand the link between the PTO and the protections afforded inventors that drive this information economy. We must work with the director to make it even more efficient and productive.”
Through a “broad-based, aggressive effort” he hopes to reduce the patent backlog that currently hovers around 700,000 utility patent applications, continued hiring of experienced former patent examiners and IP professionals, and reorganizing the office’s application classification system.
Despite Kappos’s argument for more money, Reps. Ted Poe of Texas and Jason Chaffetz of Utah, both Republicans, remained unconvinced. Chaffetz said it was “scandalous” that the patent office had spent a lot on information technology in recent years and gotten too little for its money — a situation he said was all too common in the federal government.
