Congress carries United States Patent and Trademark Office fee setting authority only to the end of the year

Hearing, “Renewal of USPTO Fee Setting Authority: Giving Full Effect to the America Invents Act,” Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, September 2, 2026

The authority Congress granted the United States Patent and Trademark Office to set and adjust its own fees under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act was scheduled to lapse on September 16, 2026, at the end of the fifteen-year period running from enactment. Section 2015 of Division B of Senate Resolution 830 amended Section 10(i)(2) of that Act to carry the authority to December 11, 2026 instead. The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet held an oversight hearing on renewal on September 2, 2026, taking testimony from Teresa Rea of Rea Consulting, Morgan Reed of the Association for Competitive Technology, Professor Melissa Wasserman of the University of Texas School of Law, and David Kappos of the Council for Innovation Promotion. The witnesses supported renewal but divided on whether Congress should attach conditions, among them a genuine sunset, limits on the Office's discretionary denial of inter partes review institution, and full reconstitution of the Patent Public Advisory Committee, which is operating with four of its nine voting members. Professor Wasserman urged that the Office recover more of its examination cost before allowance while keeping the small entity and micro entity discounts in place.