C4IP Sets Out Pro-IP Agenda for Congress and Trump Admin

The Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP) released a report Monday urging the Trump Administration and Congress to take 18 key steps to strengthen the U.S. IP system.

This is the second edition of C4IP’s report, titled, Reaffirm and Refine: A Government Agenda for Intellectual Property. The first was released in July 2023 and included 11 sections recommending agenda items for the Biden Administration and the 118^th Congress.

In addition to encouraging the 119^th Congress to pass the trio of major patent bills that have advanced through congress over the last year, the report called out congress’s reliance on faulty data in other legislative proposals, specifically data touted by the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge (I-MAK). C4IP also focused on bolstering enforcement against IP theft abroad; creating a clear legal framework for AI-generated content; rescinding current U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rules on Director Review of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions; release all patent quality data collected by the Office of Patent Quality Assurance (OPQA); and more.

The report also highlights the USPTO’s current backlog problem, pointing to a 2010 study that said “each year of delay at the USPTO, European, and Japanese patent offices is estimated to cost the global economy $10 billion.”

Former USPTO Director Kathi Vidal first publicly announced that the Office has been struggling to keep up with patent examination in July of 2024, noting there were 785,387 unexamined applications. More recently, Acting USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart told attendees of IPWatchdog’s 2025 LIVE program that the total backlog inventory now stands at 1.2 million (of which 836,246 are currently unexamined applications).

C4IP urged the Executive Branch to “establish target backlog and pendency levels”, to exempt patent and trademark examiners from policies to reduce the federal government’s workforce, and to increase hiring “while ensuring sufficient training time and rigorous candidate selection to maintain quality.” The report also noted the Office should not be subject to workforce reduction efforts “given the unique fee-based nature of the USPTO, where the number of examiners directly correlates to productivity and revenue.”

The Trump Administration’s hiring freeze should theoretically end by late April, 90 days after it took effect. In addressing solutions to the backlog last year, Vidal said the Office’s attack plan in part included a concerted hiring effort. The agency hired 644 patent examiners in FY 23 and was on target to exceed its goal of hiring 850 examiners in FY 24. This push was planned to continue through FY 25.

Stewart told IPWatchdog LIVE attendees in March that the Office was “using the time to be thoughtful about which positions to fill and which not to.”

According to the C4IP report, large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans think lawmakers should “continue protecting IP standards to promote future innovation and competition.”

“IP protections face unprecedented attacks both at home and abroad,” said Andrei Iancu, board co-chair of C4IP and former USPTO Director. “We must turn the page.”