In letters this week to key congressional panels, Engine outlined startup-forward principles and priorities that we hope will guide Congress’s work on patent and copyright law this year. We wrote to the leaders of the Senate’s IP Subcommittee and the House Subcommittee on Courts, IP, and the Internet, encouraging each Subcommittee to promote and preserve balanced IP frameworks, emphasize patent quality, stress modernization, and advance diversity and inclusion.
As we note in the letters: “IP policies can play an important role in supporting the nation’s innovators. Startups should be afforded access to the full scope of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) services. Balanced copyright laws are a critical foundation for startups that encounter user-generated content online. And policymakers must prevent imbalanced IP frameworks from standing in the way of innovation and progress.”
The letters identify several specific steps Congress could take, through legislation or oversight, to advance these goals. For example, we encourage Congress to create better demographic data sets to understand who is interacting with the USPTO (consistent with the recently-reintroduced IDEA Act), suggest relaxing technical degree requirements in a way that could diversify the patent bar, and ask Congress to consider expanding existing pro bono support for small patent and trademark applicants. On the topic of patent quality, we urge Congress to restore quality-oriented infrastructure and leadership positions that were eliminated during the previous administration and ensure the USPTO’s examiners have the time and resources needed to evaluate applications. Similarly, to reduce the cost and burden of abusive, frivolous patent litigation, we identify ways Congress could strengthen tools for weeding-out low-quality patents. Finally, regarding copyright law, we explain how current frameworks for resolving alleged infringement online work well for startups, and warn Congress not to make changes to the law without understanding how they would impact startups.
You can read our letter to the House Subcommittee here, and our letter to the Senate Subcommittee here.
