“In this plan, the USPTO’s intent is to ‘clarify the appropriate use of discretion in the AIA’s judicial proceedings to address and deter abuse of the process and promote alignment with the USPTO’s mission and the AIA’s intentions; To modify and formalize.”
Last week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it was seeking public comment on the organization’s draft strategic plan for 2022-2026.
According to the press release, the plan sets five goals for the organization.
- Promote US innovation and international competitiveness.
- promoting intellectual property rights;
- Drive IP protection against new and persistent threats.
- Bring innovation to positive impact.When
- Maximize your agency business.
“Guided by our new plan, we will work across government and with stakeholders to advance innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity, create jobs, and enhance international competitiveness and national security. I will,” said the Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, USPTO, on Strategic Planning.
Members of the public may submit comments to the USPTO by email. strategic planning@uspto.gov until January 31st, with the final plans to be published in Spring 2023.
The draft five-year strategic plan is broad in scope and focuses on issues ranging from intellectual property rights to innovation to supply chain resilience.
“More than ever, we need the progress and growth that protected intellectual property can provide, fostering the mindset of innovation, promoting inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship, economic prosperity, U.S. competitiveness, and supply chain integrity. Resilience, national security, and creative world problem-solving,” Vidal wrote at the beginning of the strategic plan.
5 goals
The first goal of promoting inclusive U.S. innovation and global competitiveness is focused on inclusivity and increasing diversity and parity in innovation and entrepreneurship. Recently, the USPTO has increased its focus on closing the gender gap in patents with a pilot program that has been found to effectively improve outcomes for patent applicants without legal representation. The organization has found the program particularly helpful for female patent applicants.
With this goal, the USPTO seeks to foster innovation in a wide range of areas. In the draft, the organization wrote: ”
Regarding improving global competitiveness, the USPTO cites increasing the number of Americans participating in innovation as a key to competing with the rest of the world. The report also quotes Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. “If more women and African Americans were involved in the early stages of the innovation process, her GDP per capita could increase by 0.6% to her 4.4%.”
To achieve this goal, the USPTO plans strategies such as increasing outreach programs to more Americans, focusing on programs and incentives for key emerging technologies.
Intellectual property right
The plan’s second and third goals both focus on intellectual property rights. The second goal is to “facilitate the efficient delivery of trusted IP rights” and the third goal is to “facilitate the protection of IP against new and ongoing threats.”
To achieve the second goal, the organization plans to “work to optimize technology, practices, policies, and regulations.” Some strategies include implementing AI technology into the patent filing system, continuing training of PTAB employees, and expediting the examination process in key technology areas.
In this section, the USPTO also acknowledges the rise in trademark fraud and fraud, and details some of the ways the organization plans to implement technology to better protect trademark owners.
A third goal also focuses on curbing criminal activity in the IP space. The USPTO plans to continue working with government agencies, including the DOJ, to “help raise awareness and fight back against wrongdoing.”
The Strategic Plan refers to the American Invents Act (AIA). This is a law defended by some and angered by others. The plan states that the USPTO’s intent is to “clarify the appropriate use of discretion in the AIA’s judicial proceedings to address and deter abuse of the process and promote alignment with the USPTO’s mission and the AIA’s intentions; rectify and formalize”.
This section also refers to the Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) and the organization’s plans to better use the tools provided by the law.
round it
The strategic plan then moves on to the fourth goal, ‘Innovation for positive impact’. In other words, the USPTO wants to “put IP-protected goods and services into the hands of those who can benefit from them.”
A key component of this goal is getting funding, grants and incentives into the hands of more innovators. In this area, the USPTO believes it has a role to play in helping a brand owner secure funding and protect her IP owner from costly infringement lawsuits.
Strategic planners cite President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which allows federal funding for US energy projects that use technologies that reduce, avoid, or sequester greenhouse gas emissions.
Additionally, the USPTO expressed its intention to continue working with other government agencies to expand access to R&D funding.
The ultimate goal of the strategic plan is to “create impactful experiences for employees and customers by maximizing agency operations.” The main focus of this goal is to attract a diverse workforce and provide the right training, education and tools.
This includes following the Department of Commerce’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. The plan “set the goal of optimizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) practices to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the American people.”
While shedding light on concrete plans, the draft clearly follows the Office’s recent actions and focus. Inclusion Fostering innovation, fostering protection of intellectual property rights, and trying to refresh technology have been at the forefront and central in recent months and years.
“Overall, we are reimagining the future USPTO: an agency that issues, maintains, and protects robust and credible intellectual property rights that encourage innovation and commercial enterprise,” Vidal wrote.
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