Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act of 2025
Rep. Neguse Proposes New Task Force to Help Patent Office and FDA Share Drug Data
This bill is currently in the early stages of the legislative process after being sent to the House Committee on the Judiciary. It is actively moving forward, but no future hearings or votes have been scheduled yet. There is no companion bill for this legislation at this time.
Passage Likelihood
Legislative Progress
Key Points
- The bill creates a new Interagency Task Force on Patents that brings together the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to share information about drug and biological product patents.
From policy text
“There is established an interagency task force, to be known as the Interagency Task Force on Patents (referred to in this section as the `task force'), to coordinate efforts between the Director and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs”
View in full text - Patent examiners would gain access to FDA data, including drug approval details, label updates, and product application information, so they can better evaluate whether a claimed invention is truly new and deserves a patent.
From policy text
“appropriate access for patent examiners to relevant sources of product application, approval, patent, and labeling information or communications between the Food and Drug Administration and the human drug or biological product sponsors that may not currently be subject to public disclosure”
View in full text - The task force would help catch inconsistencies between what drug companies tell the FDA during approvals and what they tell the Patent Office during patent applications, including whether an invention was already on sale before filing.
From policy text
“ensuring accurate representations and access to information on whether the claimed invention that would be the subject of the patent was on sale before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, as described in section 102(a)(1)”
View in full text - Before sharing confidential company information between agencies, the drug company must be notified and given 30 days to consult with the agency, and protocols must be established to prevent accidental disclosure.
From policy text
“before sharing any information described in paragraph (1), the sponsor of the human drug or biological product to which that information relates shall be provided notice of that sharing by the applicable agency and with a period of 30 days to consult with the agency sharing that information”
View in full text - The USPTO must report to Congress within four years on how often the agencies shared information, which types of information were most useful, and whether similar coordination should be explored with other federal agencies.
From policy text
“Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report”
View in full text
Impact Analysis
Personal Impact
Milestones
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Related News
2 articlesPATENT NEWS: Senate panel advances six bipartisan bills to reduce prices, encourage competition in prescription drug market
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced S. 1097, the Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act of 2025. The bill aims to reduce drug prices by promoting competition and taking on pharmaceutical manufacturer abuses through enhanced agency coordination.
AGENCY NEWS: Senators again propose USPTO-FDA task force for pharmaceutical patents
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced the introduction of the Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act (S. 1097). The bipartisan legislation would establish a task force between the USPTO and the FDA aimed at improving information sharing and coordination.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Interagency Patent Coordination and Improvement Act of 2025
Data Sources
Sponsor
Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.