Leahy, Tillis File Bill for Study on Patent Examination, Quality

Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee leadership introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would direct a federal study on improving the “patent examination process and the overall quality of patents” issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. Introduced by Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., the Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act directs the comptroller general of the U.S. to deliver a report to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees one year after enactment with an evaluation on improving patent examination. The PTO would deliver another report a year after that. The PTO report would examine how to improve “technical training of patent examiners with respect to emerging areas of technology, the status of office IT systems, a 5-year IT modernization plan, an accounting of the use by the office of advanced data science analytics and a 5-year modernization plan regarding advanced data science analytics, and finally how the result of the application of advanced data science analytics can be regularly shared with the public.”