The USPTO should be exempt from about $150 million in budget cuts from sequestration, because it pays for itself with its own user fees, and does not contribute to the budget deficit. SIIA supports a new bill to that end, called H.R. 2582, “Patents and Trademarks Encourage New Technology (PATENT) Jobs Act,” which was introduced by Rep Honda (D-CA), and co-sponsored by two fellow Californians — Reps. Lofgren and Eshoo (D-Calif.) on June 28.

Much of the debate over PTO funding hinges on whether patent payments are “voluntary” under the Budget Control Act, which was triggered this past March. The act exempts voluntary fees paid to the government from sequestration, and it would seem that the PTO would fall under this exemption. However, it was decided that user fees paid to the PTO are not “voluntary” because only the federal government can issue them.  This line of reasoning is at odds with past treatment of PTO funds by Congress and the Administration.

When Congress passed and the President signed the America Invents Act (AIA) 21 months ago, it was explicitly recognized that fees collected by the USPTO are different from regular discretionary government spending.  The act ensured that excess fees collected by the USPTO are used to fund programs to improve patent quality and pendency, and to ensure the continued provision of critical, time-sensitive services.

The budget cuts resulting from sequestration will put those efforts in jeopardy, delay the opening of new satellite offices throughout the country and exacerbate the current backlog of patent applications.  If the USPTO is unable to reduce its backlog, it will diminish businesses’ ability to expedite new innovations into the marketplace.  Sequester budget cuts may also hinder the USPTO’s efforts to improve patent quality, which could make it harder to tackle the growing problem of patent trolls.

SIIA is on record voicing its concerns about the effect of sequestration on the USPTO, and is very supportive of H.R. 2582. We urge Congress to immediately consider and pass H.R. 2582.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

SIIA today called on U.S. and EU negotiators to lower barriers to digital trade as part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Together America and the EU account for around $30 trillion in annual output, almost half the world total. Of that production, Digital services are a growing, and increasingly essential, part of both the U.S. and EU economies, and they play a huge role in supporting job creation and economic growth worldwide. For these economic benefits to continue, software and information companies must have the ability to easily move data across borders and to locate computer facilities where it is most economically feasible. We urge negotiators to recognize this important high-tech reality and to lower barriers to trade in digital services.

SIIA believes that a primary goal of the ongoing negotiations should be to establish a trade agreement, between the world’s two largest digital services economies, that can serve as a model for 21st Century trade agreements. Preventing restrictions on cross-border data flows and technology localization infrastructure requirements are absolutely critical to the reality of a trade environment that spurs digital trade and allows countries to prepare all of its citizens and enterprises for the global 21st Century economy.

SIIA also wants the TTIP to ensure that digital products, regardless of their classification as a good or service, receive market access, national treatment, most favored nation treatment, and other benefits of open markets. And finally, we urge negotiators to recognize that intellectual property protection is crucial element to enable digital trade in services.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy.

New Zealand Web Service Allows Users to Block Location (The Wall Street Journal)
Customers of New Zealand telecommunications provider Slingshot can now block their location and gain access to foreign Web services such as Netflix, bringing into question how long copyright holders can continue to bar users in specific regions from accessing their content.

Court Rules No Class-Action Status in Google Book Case (Bloomberg Businessweek)
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stripped a group representing authors of its class-action status in a lawsuit brought against Google over claims that its plan to create the world’s largest digital library will violate copyrights.

Patent Exam Saves Cities From Suits, Group Says (Courthouse News Service)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it has curbed patent holder ArrivalStar from going after cities and transit agencies that use vehicle-tracking systems by having the patent’s legitimacy re-examined.

BitTorrent: We Don’t Deal in Pirated Content (CNET)
In an effort to clear its name association with pirated movies, music and games, BitTorrent’s vice-president of marketing penned a blog post saying that while BitTorrent built the open-source, peer-to-peer technology used for content sharing, it does not endorse piracy in any shape or form.

New York City Secures .NYC Top-Level Domain (PCMag)
New York City announced that ICANN approved its request for the .nyc top-level domain, making the city one of the first in the world to be granted one of these location-specific domains.

ICE, European Partners Seize 328 Internet Domains Selling Counterfeit Goods in Coordinated Operation (U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and several law enforcement agencies in Europe, coordinated by the European Police Office (Europol), announced the seizure of 328 domain names in two related operations. The seized domain names were associated with websites illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online to unsuspecting consumers.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.