S.320 - Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2001 107th Congress (2001-2002)

Summary: S.320 — 107th Congress (2001-2002) All Information (Except Text)

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Senate agreed to House amendment with amendment (11/15/2001)

Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2001 - Amends Federal patent and trademark law, as amended by the Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act of 1999 (IPCORA) and the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA), to rename: (1) the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) the Commissioner of such Office; (2) the Commissioner for Patents the Assistant Commissioner for Patents; and (3) the Commissioner for Trademarks the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks. Amends other specified law to reflect these changes.

(Sec. 2) Amends IPCORA to specify the PTO Commissioner as the officer authorized to revise trademark services fees for inflation.

Provides for the appointment by the President of a PTO Special Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy and a PTO Deputy Commissioner for Legislative and International Affairs. Requires the President in lieu of the Secretary of Commerce to appoint the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the PTO Deputy Commissioner. Prescribes the range of levels for the Deputy Commissioner's salary.

(Sec. 3) Specifies third-party requesters as the persons who may invoke inter partes reexamination of a patent in light of new evidence (prior art) affecting its patentability. Makes this specification retroactive to the enactment of IPCORA.

(Sec. 4) Amends the Patent and Trademark Efficiency Act to make the PTO Deputy Commissioner a member of both the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.

Exempts members of the Public Advisory Committee from the current prohibition against PTO employees' having an ownership interest in patents.

Repeals the requirement for a PTO officer's attestation signature on a patent grant.

(Sec. 5) Amends IPCORA and the Domestic Publication of Foreign Filed Patent Applications Act of 1999 to declare that the right to obtain a reasonable royalty based on an international application designating the United States commences on the date of the application's publication (currently, on the date the PTO receives a copy of the application) under the pertinent treaty.

(Sec. 6) Revises certain requirements with respect to the prior art effect of published international applications. Declares that the PTO will only rely on information published in English in patent applications as it makes the essential determination of novelty during the examination of a patent application. Makes November 29, 2000, the effective date of specified AIPA amendments establishing the early publication of patent applications, including amendments made by this Act.

(Sec. 8) Amends the Trademark Act of 1946, as amended by IPCORA and the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, with respect to certain damages for willful dilutions of famous marks.

Provides for service on the Commissioner of any notices or process in proceedings affecting a mark registered by an applicant, or an assignee of the mark, not domiciled in the United States if the registrant or assignee does not designate by a document filed in the PTO the name and address of a person resident in the United States on whom such notices or process may be served.

Allows a foreign applicant for a trademark duly registered in the applicant's country of origin, when registering the mark on the principal or supplemental U.S. register, to submit a true copy or a photocopy of the foreign registration as an alternative to a certification or a certified copy.

(Sec. 9) Makes a clerical amendment to the Patent and Trademark Fee Fairness Act of 1999 and technical amendments to copyright law.