Lutnick Pledges to Tackle Patent Backlog, China 'Abuse' of USPTO

Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, labeled the US Patent and Trademark Office’s patent application backlog “unacceptable” and committed to end what he called China’s abuse of the agency during his Wednesday confirmation hearing.

“My pursuit will be rigorous reduction of that to get it down,” Lutnick said of the PTO’s response timeline during the hearing before Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) mentioned inventors’ frustration with the wait time for PTO action on applications.

The PTO “can be much more productive, but the Chinese are abusing us,” Lutnick said, citing his experience as a prolific inventor. He pledged to study the issue to ensure “American inventors get taken care of quickly and effectively” so the US can lead in critical, emerging technologies.

On average, it takes the PTO 20.3 months to initially review and communicate with an applicant, according to the agency’s December data, and 26.1 months for an application to reach final disposition.

Inventors don’t have that long to receive the assurance of a patent, Blackburn said at the hearing. She recommended a pilot program to push patents forward so the US can “go back to beating China.”

Earlier this month, then-Acting PTO Director Derrick Brent said the agency had created a multiyear plan to reduce pendency, but cautioned “pendency numbers are likely to increase in the near-term as measures are being implemented and refined.”

Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, may draw from his inventor and patent litigation background in his oversight of the agency. Coke Morgan Stewart, who served as chief of staff to PTO Director Andrei Iancu during Trump’s first term, was sworn in as the agency’s deputy director on Jan. 20, but Trump has yet to announce a nominee for the Senate-confirmed director position.

China ‘Abuse’

During the three-hour hearing, Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) also raised intellectual property questions about Deepseek, the Chinese AI company that wiped billions of dollars in value from US AI and technology companies this week. Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI Inc. are investigating whether the startup improperly obtained OpenAI’s data, Bloomberg News reported.

“I do not believe Deepseek was done all above board,” Lutnick said, adding “they broke in, they’ve taken our IP. It’s gotta end, and I’m going to be rigorous in our pursuit of restrictions and enforcing those restrictions to keep us in the lead because we must stay in the lead.”

He repeated the allegation that “the Chinese use our patent office against us,” pointing to extremely long applications that are “growing like fire” and a lack of respect for American IP.

“We need to have countries understand if you do not respect our companies’ IP there,” they should expect “the same treatment here,” Lutnick said. “Reciprocity is a word that really is effective. We are treated horribly, we want that to change.”