	The USPTO Appropriations Process

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examines and approves applications for patents on claimed inventi ons and administers the registration of trademarks. It also assists other federal departments and agencies to protect American intellectual property in the international marketplace. 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. In 1980, P.L. Critics argued that those fees not appropriated to the USPTO were used to fund other, non-related programs under the purview of the appropriators. For FY2016, the USPTO budget supported by patent fees is $3.231 billion. The Administration's request for a fee-based budget authority for FY2017 is $3.244 billion. Leahy-Smith America Invents Act

P.L. However, to address the issue of fees withheld from the office in the past, the America Invents Act creates within the Treasury a "Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund" into which fee collections above that "appropriated by the Office for that fiscal year" will be placed. These funds will be available to the USPTO "to the extent and in the amounts provided in appropriations Acts" and may only be used for the work of the USPTO. They claimed that all fees were necessary to cover actual, time-dependent activities at the USPTO and that the ability of the appropriators to limit funds severely diminished the efficient and effective operation of the office. Under the America Invents Act, the budget authority to use fees collected by the USPTO remains within the congressional appropriations process.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examines and approves applications for patents on claimed inventions and administers the registration of trademarks. It also assists other federal departments and agencies protect American intellectual property in the international marketplace. 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.
Until recently, appropriation measures limited USPTO use of all fees accumulated within a fiscal year. Critics of this approach argued that because agency operations are supported by payments for services, all fees were necessary to fund these services in the year they were provided. Some experts claimed that a portion of the patent and trademark collections were used to offset the cost of other, non-related programs. Proponents of limiting use of funds collected maintained that the fees appropriated back to the USPTO were sufficient to cover the agency's operating budget.
On December 9, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Further Continuing and Security Assistance, Appropriations Act of 2017 (P.L. 114-254). This act, among other provisions, continues USPTO's budget supported by patent fees at $3.231 billion. For FY2017, the Administration's request for a fee-based budget authority was $3.244 billion.
P.L. 112-29, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, keeps the use of fees collected within the congressional appropriations process, but requires that fees generated above the budget authority provided by the Committee on Appropriations be placed in a separate fund within the Department of the Treasury. While use of these "excess" funds still remains under the control of the appropriators, they may only be used for the work of the USPTO.