Changes

The USPTO receives its operating funds through application fees, although the office must publish annal reports to Congress on its expected level of revenue and expenditure. From there, Congress appropriates a certain level of funding that the USPTO may keep form its fee collection in order to run the office. Essentially, the USPTO must request permission to keep and use the money it receives from the application fees. No additional appropriation through Congress is usually approved.

For FY 2016, the office requested $3.2 billion of allowed expenditure from its fee collections, which with funds from other income and the Operating reserve balance, is expected to fund the necessary operating budget of $3.5 billion. ===Reserve Fund=== Section 22 of the America Invents Act (AIA) created a Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund, where excess fees collected by the USPTO are to be deposited.[http://www.uspto.gov/patent/laws-and-regulations/america-invents-act-aia/fees-and-budgetary-issues] The reserve fund is meant to reduce uncertainty in financial stability for the office, especially during government shutdown. The reserve should be able to sustain the operations of the USPTO for three months of its patent operations and four-to-six months of its trademark operations. The office projects the reserve fund to hold $1.9 billion through FY 2019, which will allow the office "to propose reducing trademark fees in FY 2015."[http://www.uspto.gov/blog/director/entry/an_update_on_sustainable_funding] However, the USPTO must still petition Congress annually for permission to spend the money deposited in the reserve fund.

The Innovation Protection Act (H.R. 1832)[http://www.ipo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Draft-Innovation-Protection-Act-As-Introduced.pdf][https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr1832], proposed by Rep. Conyers, D-MI on 4/16/15, provides for the permanent funding of the USPTO through the creation of a revolving fund. The United States Patent and Trademark Office Public Enterprise Fund would replace the current Patent and Trademark Office Appropriation Account; this public enterprise would hold all funds available for USPTO use without the Congressional appropriation requirement. The Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund, created under the AIA, would be terminated after the remaining balance in the fund is transferred to the public enterprise fund.