Description:
S. 632 would require the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to collect demographic information voluntarily submitted by patent applicants and to publish that information in a way that safeguards confidentiality. The bill also would direct PTO to publish recurring reports on demographic information and on its data collection process. Using information from PTO, CBO estimates that collecting the demographic data would cost $12 million over the 2022-2026 period—$8 million in 2022 to develop information technology systems to collect that data and $1 million in each year from 2023 through 2026 period for system maintenance. For the reports, CBO expects that PTO would need six employees at a cost of about $1 million annually over the 2022-2026 period. In total, CBO estimates that implementing S. 632 would cost $17 million over the 2022-2026 period. PTO is authorized to collect fees in amounts sufficient to offset its annual appropriation and CBO expects that the agency would adjust fee collections to match any increase in operating costs. On that basis and assuming appropriation action consistent with that authority, CBO estimates that any change in net discretionary spending by PTO would be negligible. If PTO increased fees to offset the costs associated with implementing the bill, S. 632 would increase the cost of an existing mandate on private entities required to pay those fees. CBO estimates that the incremental cost of that mandate would be small and fall below the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) of $170 million in 2021 (adjusted annually for inflation). S. 632 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.
