Last Updated on Thursday, 17 December 2009 04:01 Written by dbhalling Thursday, 17 December 2009 04:01

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According to IPWathdog.com, the Senate has voted for fee diversion from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  This reprehensible practice is has done untold damage to U.S. innovation.  The Senate’s failure to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities will help to ensure that the present economic downturn is prolonged.  As Gene Quinn explains:

The Senate vote would re-institute fee diversion, which means that if the Patent Office were to collect revenues over and above the amount allocated by Congress those additional fees would not be able to be used by the Patent Office to improve operations, or even for just handling the increased work generated by additional filings.  Rather, fees received over and above the allocated amount would be stripped from the Patent Office and diverted into the General Treasury account.  That is plain and simple a National Innovation Tax, and it is an enormously bad idea.