Congress Extends USPTO Fee Authority as PTAB Reform Enters the Bargain
Congress has approved H.R. 6500, extending the USPTO's America Invents Act fee-setting authority through 11 December 2026. Without congressional action, that authority would have expired after 15 September. The short extension removes the immediate risk of a statutory gap and gives lawmakers several more months to decide whether the Office should retain longer-term flexibility to set patent and trademark fees.
The more consequential issue is what Congress may demand in return. At a 2 September House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, lawmakers and witnesses tied the renewal debate to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's use of discretionary denial in proceedings such as inter partes review. Fee authority and PTAB institution policy are legally distinct, but the approaching sunset has created leverage. A longer renewal could therefore become a vehicle for procedural guardrails, reporting duties or other limits on how discretionary denial is applied.
A short extension, not a long-term settlement
The AIA fee-setting framework gives the USPTO room to adjust patent and trademark fees through rulemaking so that aggregate revenue tracks the cost of its operations. H.R. 6500 does not create a new long-term mandate; it simply moves the sunset to 11 December. Existing fee schedules do not disappear at the September deadline, but the Office's future ability to reshape fees remains dependent on what Congress does next.
PTAB policy is now part of the renewal debate
The 2 September hearing showed that several lawmakers are especially focused on when the PTAB may deny institution on discretionary grounds. Some participants questioned whether renewal of fee-setting authority should be paired with procedural safeguards or clearer limits. That linkage matters because the sunset gives Congress an unusually concrete deadline around which to negotiate changes that might otherwise move slowly.
What practitioners should watch before December
Companies planning 2027 US filing budgets should track two separate but increasingly connected developments: future USPTO fee policy and the rules governing access to PTAB proceedings. The practical question is no longer simply whether fee authority will be extended. It is whether the next extension will be a clean renewal or a package that also reshapes discretionary-denial practice, with direct consequences for invalidity strategy, litigation sequencing and cost planning.
