U.S. Chamber-Led Coalition Joins Voices Telling Commerce to Nix Valuation-Based Patent Fee Proposal

"On Tuesday, a coalition of business organizations and policy experts led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce raised several concerns related to potential new patent fees they said would amount to "fines" on patent owners in a letter addressed to the bipartisan leadership of the Judiciary Committees for both houses of Congress. Echoing warnings from industry insiders about the inherent difficulties of patent valuation, the U.S. Chamber's letter questions the Trump Administration's legal authority to implement such fees and says that the valuation-based fee framework would be "administratively unworkable.""

"About two months after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, himself a named inventor on about 400 patents, publicly remarked at the National Inventors Hall of Fame induction ceremony that "[inventors] have a friend" in a Secretary of Commerce who "for the first time... understands the Patent Office," news reports indicated that Trump Administration and Commerce Department officials were considering a new system of patent fees charging between 1% and 5% of the overall value of each U.S. patent."

A U.S. Chamber-led coalition of business groups and policy experts warned that proposed patent fees tied to perceived patent value would amount to fines and likely trigger serious legal challenges. The coalition questioned the Trump Administration's legal authority to impose valuation-based fees and described such a framework as administratively unworkable. Reports indicated Commerce officials considered charging between 1% and 5% of each patent's overall value. Industry experts cautioned that isolating the contribution of a single patent is incredibly difficult, that patent valuation is unreliable, and that the proposal could advantage large corporations and erode the patent system.

Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law