[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 284 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 284

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


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 26 (legislative day, January 10), 1995

 Mr. Dole (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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                                 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.--Section 154 of title 35, United States Code (as 
added by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act), is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2) of subsection (a), by striking ``and 
        ending'' and all that follows through the end of the paragraph 
        and inserting ``and ending on the later of--
                    ``(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.'';
            (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 paragraph (1) of subsection (c), 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).
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