Patents for Humanity Act of 2022

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office established the Patents for Humanity program as a pilot program in 2012 to recognize noteworthy inventions that address humanitarian problems.

The program has honored inventions relating to water purification, infectious diseases, crop yields, and infant mortality, among others. Winners are awarded certificates that grant acceleration of certain matters before the USPTO, such as examination of a future patent application.

The Patents for Humanity program provides an incentive to encourage innovation in areas important to addressing humanitarian needs of today and the future. It does this without costing taxpayers a penny and without the need to raise user fees at the PTO. This is a very important distinction.

This bill would also allow this successful pilot program to continue as a congressionally approved program. The Senate version of this bill on the floor today is almost identical to the version the House passed this past spring with just a few minor changes.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5796 is a straightforward but important bill that will encourage additional innovations that address humanitarian needs both in the U.S. and abroad.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Senate amendment to H.R. 5796, which codifies a competition at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office called ``Patents for Humanity.'' The Patents for Humanity program highlights the ways that innovation and intellectual property help solve global humanitarian challenges.

I applaud Representatives Jeffries and Spartz for spearheading this bill in order to ensure that special recognition permanently extends to inventors who turn their genius towards helping the world's most needy and vulnerable.

The Senate amendment does away with the need for extra rulemaking before the competition can continue its operation, and as such, is a welcome addition to help streamline this bill. The operative provisions of the bill will make permanent the Patents for Humanity awards program, which encourages the development and use of inventions that address humanitarian needs in the fields of medicine, nutrition, sanitation, household energy, and living standards for impoverished people. Winning inventors are recognized in a public awards ceremony and receive a certificate that can be used to accelerate certain examination proceedings at the USPTO.

Since 2012, the USPTO has recognized numerous award recipients across a wide range of technologies. The recipients have invented ground- breaking technologies that greatly improve the standard of living for so many people in need in the United States and around the world.

This bill also builds on the work of Representative McBath, who successfully led a bipartisan effort to pass legislation in the last Congress strengthening the program. That law allowed the awards certificate to be transferable if the award recipient would prefer to seek its free market value rather than accelerate a different patent application.

Today, we are going a step further by ensuring that this program is a permanent feature of our innovation ecosystem.

In Congress, we strive to make sure that our intellectual property laws incentivize innovation to the greatest extent possible, but this category of humanitarian inventions will always deserve special recognition. H.R. 5796, as amended in the Senate, makes sure that it will, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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