Leadership in CET Act

SUMMARY

Leadership in Critical and Emerging Technologies Act or the Leadership in CET Act This bill directs the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to establish and carry out a pilot program to expedite the patent examination process for patents involving critical or emerging technologies (i.e., artificial intelligence, semiconductor design, or quantum information science). The USPTO must report to Congress on the impact and effectiveness of the pilot program.

FULL TEXT

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 1833 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

119th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1833

To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to establish and carry out a pilot program to expedite the examination of applications for certain patents, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 21, 2025

Mrs. Blackburn (for herself and Mr. Welch) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to establish and carry out a pilot program to expedite the examination of applications for certain patents, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

This Act may be cited as the ``Leadership in Critical and Emerging Technologies Act'' or the ``Leadership in CET Act''.

(a) Definitions.--In this section:

means an application for patent that contains at least 1 claimed invention directed to an eligible critical or emerging technology.

Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the Office.

``eligible critical or emerging technology'' means--

(A) an artificial intelligence capability relating to--

(i) machine learning;

(ii) deep learning;

(iii) reinforcement learning;

(iv) sensory perception or recognition;

(v) an artificial intelligence assurance or assessment technique;

(vi) a foundation model;

(vii) a generative artificial intelligence system or multimodal or large language model;

(viii) a synthetic data approach for training, tuning, or testing;

(ix) planning, reasoning, or decision making; or

(x) the improvement of artificial intelligence safety, trust, security, or responsible use;

(B) semiconductor design or an electronic design automation tool; or

(C) a quantum information science capability relating to--

(i) quantum computing;

(ii) materials, isotopes, or fabrication techniques for quantum devices;

(iii) quantum sensing; or

(iv) quantum communications or networking.

Patent and Trademark Office.

(b) Establishment.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall establish a pilot program to expedite the examination, under section 131 of title 35, United States

Code, of covered applications.

(c) Purpose.--The purpose of the pilot program shall be to encourage innovation by, and the leadership of, the United States with respect to critical or emerging technologies by ensuring that covered applications receive prompt consideration.

(d) Implementation.--In carrying out the pilot program, the Director may--

(A) the requirements to participate in the pilot program;

(B) internal processing by the Office of covered applications under the pilot program;

(C) requirements for restriction or unity of inventions identified in covered applications;

(D) the period during which the applicant submitting the covered application may reply with respect to an action taken by the Office with respect to the covered application;

(E) standards relating to a reply described in subparagraph (D);

(F) standards or procedures governing--

(i) any amendment, affidavit, or other evidence filed after a final action taken by the Office with respect to the covered application; and

(ii) any process for appeal with respect to a final action described in clause (i); and

(G) the withdrawal, by an applicant, of a covered application submitted under the pilot program;

(A) the petition fee described in section 1.102(d)

of title 37, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation; or

(B) any other requirement of the Office relating to the accelerated examination program or the prioritized examination program; and

Federal agency, as may be appropriate to carry out the pilot program.

(e) Qualifying Applications.--To best achieve the purpose of the pilot program, the Director shall ensure that a covered application satisfies the following requirements to qualify for the pilot program:

(A) is not a foreign entity of concern, as defined in section 9901 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

(15 U.S.C. 4651); and

(B) certifies in the covered application that the inventor or any joint inventor with respect to any claimed invention in the covered application has not been named as the inventor or joint inventor with respect to more than 4 other covered applications submitted under the pilot program.

(f) Termination.--

(A) The date that is 5 years after the date on which the Director first accepts a covered application for participation in the pilot program.

(B) The date on which the Director has accepted

15,000 covered applications for participation in the pilot program, without regard to whether those covered applications have been expedited under the pilot program.

(A) An additional 5-year period, beginning on the date on which the pilot program terminates under paragraph (1)(B).

(B) An additional period--

(i) beginning on the date on which the pilot program terminates under paragraph

(1)(B); and

(ii) ending on the date on which the Director has accepted an additional 15,000 covered applications for participation in the pilot program, without regard to whether those covered applications have been expedited under the pilot program.

(A) The date that is 60 days before the date described in paragraph (1)(A).

(B) The date that is 30 days after the date on which the Director has accepted 12,000 covered applications for participation in the pilot program, without regard to whether those covered applications have been expedited under the pilot program.

(g) Public Availability of Information.--The Director shall make publicly available in an easily accessible location on the website of the Office information about the pilot program, including--

(h) Report to Congress.--

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