117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5796 
AN ACT 
To amend title 35, United States Code, to establish a com-
petition to award certificates that can be redeemed to 
accelerate certain matters at the Patent and Trademark 
Office, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Patents for Humanity 
Act of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. AWARD OF CERTIFICATES TO ACCELERATE CER-
TAIN MATTERS AT THE PATENT AND TRADE-
MARK OFFICE. 
(a) AWARD.—Chapter 2 of title 35, United States 
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘§ 28. Award of certificates to accelerate certain mat-
ters at the Patent and Trademark Office 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a com-
petition, to be held not less frequently than biennially, to 
award eligible entities certificates that can be redeemed 
to accelerate one of the following matters: 
‘‘(1) An ex parte reexamination proceeding, in-
cluding one appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal 
Board from that proceeding. 
‘‘(2) An application for a patent, including one 
appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board from 
that application. 
‘‘(3) An appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal 
Board of a claim twice rejected in a patent applica-
tion or reissue application or finally rejected in an 
ex parte reexamination, without accelerating the un-
derlying matter which generated the appeal.
‘‘(4) A matter identified under subsection 
(d)(4). 
‘‘(b) ADMINISTRATION.—The Director shall admin-
ister the competition established by subsection (a). 
‘‘(c) APPLICATION.—An eligible entity seeking an 
award under subsection (a) shall submit to the Director 
an application, at such time, in such manner, and con-
taining such information as the Director may require. 
‘‘(d) RULEMAKING AUTHORITY.—With respect to the 
competition established by subsection (a), the Director 
shall conduct a rulemaking proceeding to promulgate rules 
on the— 
‘‘(1) entities eligible to receive an award; 
‘‘(2) process and metrics by which applications 
are judged, including the criteria for selecting judges 
for the competition; 
‘‘(3) factors that will be considered in selecting 
the eligible entities that receive an award; and 
‘‘(4) additional matters for which a certificate 
described under subsection (a) may be awarded. 
‘‘(e) PROMOTION OF COMPETITION.—The Director 
shall promote the competition through the satellite offices 
established pursuant to section 1. 
‘‘(f) TREATMENT AS SUCCESSOR.—The competition 
established under subsection (a) shall be treated as a suc-
cessor to the Patents for Humanity Program (established 
in the notice entitled ‘Humanitarian Awards Pilot Pro-
gram’, published at 77 Fed. Reg. 6544 (February 8, 
2012)). 
‘‘(g) ELIGIBLE ENTITY DEFINED.—In this section, 
the term ‘eligible entity’ means a entity that— 
‘‘(1) submits an application under subsection 
(c) for a patent that addresses a humanitarian issue; 
and 
‘‘(2) is eligible to receive an award under sub-
section (d)(1).’’. 
(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion, or the amendments made by this section, may be con-
strued as prohibiting the Under Secretary of Commerce 
for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States 
Patent and Trademark Office from administering the 
competition established by section 28 of title 35, United 
States Code, as added by subsection (a), before the date 
on which all rules are promulgated under the rulemaking 
proceeding required by subsection (d) of such section. 
(c) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 
The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 2 of title 
35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 
the following: