US patent office head faces bipartisan grilling in Congress

By Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director John Squires faced sharp questions during an oversight hearing at the House of Representatives on Wednesday on his office's role in benefiting other Trump administration officials.

Maryland Democratic U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a letter last week that the USPTO had aided President Donald Trump in concealing who controls and profits from his Board of Peace by applying for trademarks on the organization's behalf.

"There’s much we don’t know about this shadowy venture," Raskin told Squires at the hearing on Wednesday. "Yet when the Board of Peace decided it wanted to secure a trademark for its name and logo — a move that should have required it to identify the legal entity that actually runs it and controls its billions of dollars — you stepped in."

Squires responded on Wednesday that the office applied for the trademarks based on national security concerns and to address an "immediate cybersquatting land grab" on the Board of Peace name.

Trump proposed the Board of Peace in September when he announced his plan ‌to end ⁠Israel's war in Gaza. Its charter says ​it undertakes "peace-building functions in ⁠accordance with international law."

Member states would be limited to three-year terms unless they pay $1 billion each to fund the board's activities and earn permanent membership, according to the charter. The board's official X account listed more than two dozen countries as founding members, including Washington's main Middle Eastern allies.

Raskin on Wednesday called the board a "secret slush fund" for the president and said it was likely unconstitutional.

Squires denied that the office represented the president in filing the applications, but said the marks would be transferred to the board's legal entity once it is formed.

California Republican U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa, who heads the committee's intellectual property subcommittee, said during the hearing that Trump had compared the board to the U.S.-owned broadcaster Voice of America.

"The Voice of America doesn't get a billion dollars from the Saudi government, that would be illegal," Raskin said. "This is just getting more confusing by the moment."

Issa also questioned Squires on whether U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose department oversees the office, may have conflicts of interest that could affect the operation of a USPTO patent tribunal.

The office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board reviews the validity of existing patents. Issa said that Lutnick has reduced the board's effectiveness during his tenure, and asked whether Lutnick, a named inventor on hundreds of U.S. patents, had "eliminated all owned assets that could in any way benefit from these changes."

"It is my understanding that he may not have eliminated all of his holdings, and therefore there could genuinely be a conflict," Issa said. Issa also said the committee may subpoena Lutnick for more information.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department said that Lutnick has "fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement, including all divestiture and recusal requirements, and will continue to do so."