Posts in Capitol Hill

As 2025 draws to a close, the intellectual property ecosystem faces a wave of transformative changes driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and evolving legislative priorities. From sweeping federal proposals aimed at harmonizing AI governance and overriding state laws, to new copyright and media integrity measures designed to address deepfakes and transparency, and finally to renewed momentum behind patent eligibility and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) reform, these developments signal a pivotal moment for innovators, rights holders, and policymakers alike. This article explores three critical fronts shaping the future of IP: federal AI legislation and executive preemption, copyright accountability and media integrity, and the year-end outlook for patent reform—each redefining the balance between innovation, protection, and compliance.

Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Peter Welch (D-VT) have introduced a bill to streamline the copyright registration process for visual artists, such as photographers, illustrators and graphic artists. According to a press release issued by Blackburn yesterday, “the [copyright] registration process is so bureaucratic and complicated that the time and expense of compliance is too high for high-volume creators like photographers, illustrators, and graphic artists.”

The “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act” (H.R. 6028), which was introduced in November and would require the Librarian of Congress to be appointed by a bipartisan commission of congress, as well as remove the Librarian’s authority over the Copyright Office, is reportedly on a path to be fast-tracked. Re:Create, an organization with the stated mission of fighting for “a balanced copyright system that is pro-innovation, pro-creator, and pro-consumer,” along with seven other copyright and consumer advocacy groups, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Administration Committee on December 11 urging Committee Members to slow their consideration of the bill, citing reports that “the House is considering swift passage…possibly on the suspension calendar or through other expedient means.”

The Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held a hearing on Tuesday that included testimony from the band Kiss’s co-founder, Gene Simmons, to discuss issues surrounding a proposed bill to compensate performers when their songs are broadcast on terrestrial radio stations. “America remains the only democratic nation and one of the few countries globally that does not compensate performers or copyright holders when their songs are played on AM/FM radio,” said IP Subcommittee Chair Thom Tillis (R-NC).

The deadline for comments on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued in October, titled “Revision to Rules of Practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board,” was yesterday, December 2. As of today, the Office has received 10,783 comments and has published just over 1,000 of them. The rules have been broadly welcomed by IP holders and practitioners, and broadly opposed by those who want to preserve the option to easily challenge patents. Below, we summarize several submissions from individuals and organizations on both sides.

On day one of IPWatchdog’s Life Sciences Masters 2025, panelists addressed a number of looming policy proposals that are negatively impacting the life sciences industry and urged stakeholders to get involved and speak out in order to minimize their effects. An introductory panel that included program sponsors Sherry Knowles of Knowles Intellectual Property Strategies and Robert Sahr of Wolf Greenfield, as well as Becky Kaufman of Ohio State University’s Office of Legal Affairs, discussed topics including Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s patent tax proposal and the administration’s threats to march in on federally-funded university patents.

Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) told US Inventors Conference attendees on Thursday that he will reintroduce the Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act (RALIA). Massie first introduced RALIA in 2021. The bill would repeal the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR;) return the patent system to a “first-to-invent” model, rather than first-to-file, and would end automatic publication of patents. Inventor groups such as US Inventor and conservative groups have supported the legislation.

In the America Invents Act (AIA) of 2011, Congress required the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to establish at least three regional offices nationwide. These offices were not symbolic; they were intended to expand access to patent services, recruit new examiners, and strengthen innovation ecosystems outside Washington, D.C. In 2014, I was honored to serve as the first Director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office, which provided inventors and small businesses across the Mountain West direct access to USPTO resources. By reducing barriers for entrepreneurs in states like Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, the office became a vital link between the innovation community and the federal government. The Trump administration’s decision to close the Denver office undermines this congressional mandate.

An April 2025 report from the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) titled, “The Heavy Price of GLP-1 Drugs,” presents grossly misleading information regarding the patent protection for semaglutide products (marketed by Novo Nordisk under the trademarks Ozempic, Rybelsus, and Wegovy) and tirzepatide products (marketed by Eli Lilly under the trademarks Mounjaro and Zepbound). The report accuses Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly of engaging in patent abuse to extend protection for their products. This accusation is predicated on I-MAK’s assertion that these companies own large numbers of patents covering their respective products. But, as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) noted in its recent Drug Patent and Exclusivity Study, “simply quantifying raw numbers of patents and exclusivities is an imprecise way to measure the intellectual property landscape of a drug product because not every patent or exclusivity has the same scope.”

Since its introduction in 2023, the pro-patent community has broadly supported what the draft Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) said. However, a potentially monumental, unrelated rider seems to have crept in on the last page of the 2025 version…. Why did the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on IP feel the need to slip in a rider on the judicially created non-statutory doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting (judicially created ODP) in a bill directed to patent eligibility?

Eight witnesses across two panels testified today during a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property to discuss perspectives on the latest version of the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), which its key sponsor, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) expressed urgency about passing before he retires from congress in 452 days.

As we reported he would be yesterday, John Squires today was officially confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as part of an en bloc vote on 48 pending Trump nominees. The confirmations were made by a vote of 51-47.

On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Senate held a series of votes that teed up the confirmation vote for John Squires to serve as Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), along with 47 other Trump Administration nominees, as part of Senate Republicans’ exercise of the “nuclear option” for confirmations recently approved by Senate rulemaking. Squires will take the helm of the USPTO following months of largely patent-friendly PTAB reforms established by Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart, creating optimism that has recently been undercut by reported efforts to create fee frameworks based on patent valuation.

In the first session of IPWatchdog’s three-day 2025 Women’s IP Forum, which kicked off today, Acting Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Coke Morgan Stewart addressed recent criticisms of her approach to running the agency thus far, as well as the future direction of the Office. At the same time, the Senate Executive Calendar today indicated that Trump nominee for USPTO Director, John Squires, may be confirmed as early as this week, as part of a block of nominees to be considered following a Senate rule approved last week invoking the so-called “nuclear option.”

The Trump Administration is trying to counter China on nearly every strategic front, from the South China Sea to the factory floor. Yet the Administration, and Congress, haven’t yet done much to address one of America’s biggest vulnerabilities—the steady decline of our once world-class system of intellectual property (IP) rights.