[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 359 Introduced in House (IH)]

  1st Session
                                H. R. 359

        To restore the term of patents, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 4, 1995

Mr. Rohrabacher (for himself, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Brown of California, Mr. 
   Walker, Mr. Sensenbrenner, Mr. Gallegly, Mr. Bono, Mr. Kennedy of 
Massachusetts, Mr. Boehner, Mr. DeLay, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Paxon, Mr. Cox, 
  Mr. Stearns, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. Herger, Mr. 
 Doolittle, Mr. Baker of California, Mr. Pombo, Mr. Istook, Mr. Roth, 
Mr. Funderburk, Mr. Bunning of Kentucky, Mr. Packard, Mrs. Vucanovich, 
Mr. Bilbray, Mr. McKeon, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Metcalf, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. 
Christenson, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Kim, Mr. Blute, Mr. 
 Radanovich, Mr. Royce, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. Brewster, Mr. 
Frisa, Mr. Dornan, Mr. Traficant, Mrs. Morella, Mr. Klink, Mr. Schiff, 
 Mr. Hunter, Mr. Ehrlich, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Forbes, 
   Mr. Nadler, Mr. Filner, Mr. Lucas, and Mr. Moran) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
        To restore the term of patents, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PATENT TERMS.

    (a) Amendment.--Effective on the date of the enactment of this Act, 
section 154 of title 5, United States Code, as amended by the Uruguay 
Round Agreements Act, is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2) of subsection (a), by striking ``and 
        ending'' and all that follows in that paragraph and inserting 
        ``and ending--
                    ``(A) 17 years from the date of the grant of the 
                patent, or
                    ``(B) 20 years from the date on which the 
                application for the patent was filed in the United 
                States, except that if the application contains a 
                specific reference to an earlier filed application or 
                applications under section 120, 121, or 365(c) of this 
                title, 20 years from the date on which the earliest 
                such patent application was filed,
        whichever is later.'';
            (2) by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:
    ``(b) Patent Disclosure.--In the event that a continuing patent 
application is filed that claims the benefit of the filing date of a 
prior application that was filed more than 60 months earlier, notices 
of the original patent application and of the continuing patent 
application shall be published and the public shall be permitted to 
inspect and copy the original patent application and the continuing 
patent application.''; and
            (3) in subsection (c)(1), by striking ``shall be the 
        greater of the 20-year term as provided in subsection (a), or 
        17 years from grant'' and inserting ``shall be the term 
        provided in subsection (a)''.
    (b) Technical Amendment.--Section 534(b) of the Uruguay Round 
Agreements Act is amended by striking paragraph (3).
                                 <all>