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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing more than 2,200 employees of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) today urged Congress to use its oversight authority to ensure a smooth transition to an electronic commerce environment, including making sure the agency provides both appropriate training for employees and adequate time to pursue such training.

Under its revised strategic plan, PTO is expanding the electronic filing and processing of patent and trademark applications, as well as instituting quality control initiatives, and taking other steps.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said that while the union supports the concept of these efforts, it remains concerned that employees are not being provided either with adequate hands-on training or the time in which to secure it.

“PTO employees can better promote these initiatives,” President Kelley said, “if PTO is allowed to keep all the revenue it generates from applicants and use that money in support of its programs and its employees.”

Even though PTO is a user-funded agency, the revenues generated go into the general treasury, and Congress then appropriates PTO funding from those revenues. Over many years, some of the PTO revenue has been diverted to other uses, including deficit reduction.

The administration’s proposed fiscal 2004 budget calls for continued diversion of some portion of PTO funds even as it proposes a modest increase in the fees paid by applicants for patents and trademarks.

President Kelley said the proposed budget provisions, which are the subject of a congressional hearing today, “provide an excellent opportunity” for the House Subcommittee on the Internet, Courts and Intellectual Property, which has jurisdiction over PTO matters, “to review the agency’s management practices and encourage policies that both make full use of employees’ skills and reward them appropriately.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments.