Today the U.S. House of Representatives will consider H.R. 5874, a bill which invests an additional $129 million in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. The Innovation Alliance strongly supports H.R. 5874 and urges House Members to vote for the measure, which will help promote job growth and innovation.

Innovation Alliance executive director Brian Pomper made the following statement in response to the proposed funding increase, “The Innovation Alliance and other major stakeholder groups have long supported greater funding for the USPTO. Greater funding means that patent quality can increase and the 36 month backlog of unexamined patents can decrease. The stakeholder community knows that improving the ability of American innovators to obtain patents, means that U.S. manufacturing and overall competitiveness is enhanced.

H.R. 5874 allows the USPTO to use the additional funding that it anticipates collecting this fiscal year to hire more examiners to begin to turnaround the patent backlog. We anticipate the House will pass this measure today and are hopeful that the Senate will take it up quickly and without changes.