On Thursday U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce REBECCA BLANK and Commerce Inspector General TODD ZINSER testified on the Obama Administration’s 2014 budget. They spoke at a hearing of the Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and later in the day at a hearing of the House counterpart subcommittee. In a prepared statement, Zinser said the President’s FY 2014 request includes $3.1 billion in USPTO user-fee funding critically needed to reduce the patent backlog, improve patent application processing times, and implement patent reform, all of which are steps, he said, that could stimulate economic growth. For the Senate webcast, click here. The question of whether there will be an effect on the USPTO this year from the “sequester” did not come up.
