================================================================= ALAWON Volume 5, Number 46 ISSN 1069-7799 July 23, 1996 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: SENATE HEARING POSTPONED ON BILL TO RELOCATE COPYRIGHT OFFICE TO EXECUTIVE BRANCH _________________________________________________________________ SENATE HEARING POSTPONED ON BILL TO RELOCATE COPYRIGHT OFFICE TO EXECUTIVE BRANCH ALAWON readers will recall that the 104th Congress has seen the introduction of several proposals to modify the structure and responsibilities of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), including proposals to eliminate the Office in favor of creating a government corporation with jurisdiction over all intellectual property issues. On July 16, Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the "Omnibus Patent Act of 1996" (S. 1961), the most sweeping of any such proposal to date. Originally scheduled to be the subject of a Judiciary Committee hearing just a week after its introduction, consideration of the bill now reportedly will be deferred from July 23 at least until September. If and when the bill does come before the Committee, it faces stiff opposition from Senators of both parties and is unlikely to clear the Senate in its present form. The most clearly controversial aspect of S. 1961 is its proposal to create a new government corporation to be called the U.S. Intellectual Property Organization (USIPO). Sustained entirely by fee revenue, the USIPO would be headed by a "Commissioner of Intellectual Property" appointed by the President. The Commissioner would serve as chief IP advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and would appoint the heads of three separate offices within the USIPO responsible respectively for patents, trademarks and copyrights. Office heads would serve at the pleasure of the Commissioner. **The Copyright Office, now located within the Library of Congress and headed by the Register of Copyrights, would become a subdivision of the USIPO.** Sen. Hatch's proposal drew immediate criticism from Librarian of Congress James Billington who, like ALA and the nation's other major library associations, regard the "decoupling" of the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress as a substantial threat to the growth of the Library's extraordinarily comprehensive collection and the research that it uniquely supports. Although Sen. Hatch noted in his introductory statement that the legislation would make no change in the laws governing the deposit of works prerequisite to copyright registration, and that the Librarian of Congress would be an ex officio member of the new Copyright Office's Management Advisory Board, concerns over the "decoupling" of the Register's Office from the Library and the Legislative Branch remain deep in the library community. Fearing a major (and some argue inevitable) increase in registration fees, authors and others also have opposed S. 1961. In the event that S. 1961 resurfaces as a serious candidate for Judiciary Committee or Senate consideration this fall, it is likely that ALA members will be asked to contact their Representatives in Congress to urge that the Library of Congress' unparalleled collections, the research they support, and the balance at the core of copyright law be protected by striking those portions of S. 1961 which would relocate the Copyright Office to the Executive Branch. In the interim, the Washington Office will continue the work begun immediately after the Omnibus Patent Act was introduced to educate Members of Congress and their staffs about librarians' deep and longstanding concerns on this critical issue. ________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname]" to . ALAWON archives gopher.ala.org; select Washington Office Newsline. Web page HTTP://www.ala.org/alawashington.html. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Contributors: Adam M. Eisgrau (ame@alawash.org) All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================