PTO anti-fee diversion to be resurrected in the 109th Congress?

Senator Norm Coleman (MN) is planning to introduce the Collaborative Opportunities to Mobilize and Promote Education, Technology, and Enterprise (COMPETE) Act.

Among various grant and tax credit provisions, the bill also apparently includes provisions aimed at ending the diversion of Patent and Trademark Office fees to non-PTO programs (see this post on Promote the Progress for more details).

Sound familiar? It should. The anti-fee diversion provisions of the COMPETE Act are, according to one report, essentially the same as HR 1561 (The Patent and Trademark Fee Modernization Act) from the 108th Congress. Remember that PTFMA was designed to end diversion practices and enjoyed broad support despite dramatic fee increases, but was gutted of its anti-fee diversion provisions in a late-term push to raise PTO user fees.

No word yet on when the bill will be introduced in the 109th Congress officially.