USPTO budget is formulated with workload projections based on preexisting IPR law – plan disrupts that

Estimating prospective aggregate costs is accomplished primarily through the annual USPTO budget formulation process. The annual budget is a five-year plan for carrying out base programs and new initiatives to deliver on the USPTO's statutory mission and implement strategic goals and objectives. First, the USPTO projects the level of demand for patent products and services. Demand for products and services depends on many factors that are subject to change, including domestic and global economic activity. The USPTO also considers overseas patenting activities, policies and legislation, and known process efficiencies. Because filing, search, and examination costs are the largest share of the total patent operating costs, a primary production workload driver is the number of patent application filings (i.e., incoming work to the USPTO). The USPTO looks at indicators such as the expected growth in Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP), a leading indicator of incoming patent applications, to estimate prospective workload. RGDP is reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (www.bea.gov) and is forecasted each February by the OMB (www.omb.gov) in the Economic and Budget Analyses section of the Analytical Perspectives and twice annually by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) (www.cbo.gov) in the Budget and Economic Outlook.

The expected production workload must then be compared to the current examination production capacity to determine any required staffing and operating cost (e.g., salaries, workload processing contracts, and publication) adjustments. The USPTO uses a patent pendency model to estimate patent production output based on actual historical data and input assumptions, such as incoming patent applications and overtime hours. An overview of the model, including a description of inputs, outputs, key data relationships, and a simulation tool is available at https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/statistics/patent-pendency-model.

Next, the USPTO calculates budgetary spending requirements based on the prospective aggregate costs of patent operations. First, the USPTO estimates the prospective costs of status quo operations (base requirements). Then, the base requirements are adjusted for anticipated pay increases and inflationary increases for the budget year and four outyears. The USPTO then estimates the prospective costs for expected changes in production workload and new initiatives over the same period. The USPTO reduces cost estimates for completed initiatives and known cost savings expected over the same five-year horizon. A detailed description of the budgetary requirements, aggregate costs, and related assumptions for the Patents program is available in the FY 2025 Budget.