Figueroa v. United States
N/AOUTCOME: The goal of the case was achieved - we drew attention to the plight of the patent office and obtained a voluntary (non-court ordered) reversal of fee diversion by Congress.
The seminal patent fee diversion case. The USPTO (Patent Office) takes no funds from the Federal Government, but instead is fully supported by the patent fees of inventors. The USPTO was forced to ... divest those funds to the federal government so that the funds could be used on unrelated budgetary spending. The results of this divestment were a backlog of patent applications, shortage of examiners, stifling of patent office resources and delayed issuance of patents. Petitioner in Figueroa v. United States argued that this was an illegal taking in violation of Art I Sec 8 clause 8 of the Constitution - failing to PROMOTE science and the useful arts by delaying issuance of patents through fee diversion. The Congressional taking was ultimately ruled constitutional, but the case drew attention to the plight of the patent office and resulted in a voluntary (non-court ordered) reversal of fee diversion by Congress.
