While "patent reform" bills that make little sense continue their advance through Congress toward enactment (see extensive reporting on this at www.patentdocs.org), the same gang of idiots politicians can't get its act together regarding a budget. For the USPTO this means a return to the dark days of fee diversion: without a budget, the USPTO is stuck at last year's funding levels, so that for the remainder of this fiscal year it will be bringing in about $100,000,000 that can't spend. Of necessity, then, the USPTO has to cut planned spending. What a wonderful way for Congress to promote the progress of useful arts and sciences: maim the patent statute AS WELL AS the office charged with implementing that statute. Nice work, guys. (Some backbone from Mr. Obama might also have helped avert this mess.)
Yesterday Dennis Crouch reported USPTO Director David Kappos' announcement to employees explaining how the USPTO plans to deal with the effective budget cuts. Among other things, "PCT search funding is cut severely". Translation: if you want a PCT search report done on time, don't use the USPTO until it gets its budget back. For entities filing with the Israel Receiving Office, that means using the EPO -their only other choice - as the PCT search authority; the Israel PTO is still not qualified as a PCT search authority. The good news for people using the US RO is that they'll still have Australia and Korea (and soon Russia) available for their PCT searches - and at lower cost than the now-grinding-to-a-halt USPTO PCT search mechanism. Plus a good PCT written opinion or IPRP can be used for a PPH request down the road. If Congress doesn't want the USPTO to spend its money, then there's no reason for users of the USPTO to give the USPTO more money than necessary.