Fee diversion case dismissed
Update for the USPTO fee diversion lawsuit I previously reported on, Hoglund & Pamias notes:
On June 28, 2005, the Court of Federal Claims issued an Order dismissing all claims. Plaintiff will proceed with an appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The Conclusion of the Order reading:
Congress is entitled to great deference under the Necessary and Proper Clause when it legislates under its Intellectual Property power. Any intellectual property law Congress passes need only survive the limited scrutiny of the rational basis test as to whether it promotes the progress of science and the useful arts. Plaintiff may well be correct that the current patent fee regime is misguided and creates the wrong incentives, but such policy determinations are for Congress, and not the courts, to make. Plaintiff has not carried his burden of showing that Congress has behaved irrationally.
Hal Wegner notes that the citation is: Figueroa v. United States, 2005 WL 1515904, __ Fed. Cl. __ (2005)(Futey, J.)