jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Bill 113-S-2146 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Patent Fee Integrity Act - Establishes in the Treasury the United States Patent and Trademark Office Innovation Promotion Fund (Innovation Promotion Fund) to be used as a revolving fund by the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) without fiscal year limitation.

Requires to be credited to or deposited in the Innovation Promotion Fund: (1) appropriations for defraying the costs of USPTO activities; (2) fees collected under federal patent and trademark laws; and (3) any available unobligated balances remaining in the Patent and Trademark Office Appropriation Account and in the Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund. (Replaces the Patent and Trademark Office Appropriation Account, eliminates the Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund, and provides a source of permanent funding for the USPTO.)

Requires fees collected by the Director to remain available to the Director until expended.

Makes the Public Enterprise Fund available to cover: (1) ordinary and reasonable administrative, operating, and other expenses incurred by the Director for the continued operation of USPTO services, programs, activities, and duties relating to patents and trademarks; and (2) expenses incurred pursuant to obligations, representations, or other commitments of the USPTO.

Requires the Director, on an annual basis, to: (1) report to Congress with operation and spending plans for the current and next fiscal year, including financial details and staff levels broken down by each major activity; (2) provide for an independent audit of USPTO financial statements; and (3) submit a budget to the President.
Bill 113-S-2321 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Songwriter Equity Act of 2014 - Amends federal copyright law regarding the exclusive rights of sound recording copyright owners to remove a provision that prohibits license fees payable for the public performance of sound recordings, by means of a digital audio transmission, from being taken into account in any administrative, judicial, or other governmental proceeding to set or adjust the royalties payable to copyright owners of musical works for the public performance of their works.

Requires Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJs), when setting royalty rates under the compulsory license available for the reproduction and distribution of musical works (commonly referred to as a "mechanical license"), to establish rates and terms that most clearly represent the rates and terms that would have been negotiated in the marketplace between a willing buyer and seller.

Requires CRJs, in establishing such rates and terms, to base their decision on marketplace, economic, and use information presented by the participants. Allows consideration of comparable uses and circumstances under voluntary license agreements.
Bill 114-HR-862 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

You Own Devices Act

Amends federal copyright law to allow the owner of a machine or other product operated in any part by a computer program to transfer an authorized copy of the computer program, or the right to obtain such copy, when the owner sells, leases, or otherwise transfers the machine or product to another person. Prohibits such right to transfer the computer program from being waived by any agreement.

Requires any right to receive modifications to such a computer program relating to security or error correction that applied to the owner of the machine or product to apply to the person to whom the machine or product and the copy of the computer program are transferred.

Prohibits this Act from being construed to permit the owner to retain an unauthorized copy of the computer program after such a transfer.
Bill 114-HR-1057 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales Act of 2015 or the PARTS Act 

Declares that it is not an act of infringement, with respect to a design patent that claims a component part of a motor vehicle as originally manufactured, to: (1) make, test, or offer to sell within, or import into, the United States any article of manufacture that is similar or the same in appearance to the component part claimed in such design patent if the purpose of such article is for the repair of a motor vehicle to restore its appearance as originally manufactured; or (2) use or sell within the United States any such same or similar articles for such restorations more than 30 months after the claimed component part is first offered for public sale as part of a motor vehicle in any country.

Defines: (1) "component part" as a component part of the exterior of a motor vehicle only (such as a hood, fender, tail light, side mirror, or quarter panel), excluding an inflatable restraint system or other component part located in the interior of a motor vehicle; and (2) "offer to sell" to include marketing or pre-sale distribution.

Applies this Act to any patent issued, or application filed, before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.
Bill 114-HR-1283 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Songwriter Equity Act of 2015

Amends federal copyright law regarding the exclusive rights of sound recording copyright owners to remove a provision that prohibits license fees payable for the public performance of sound recordings, by means of a digital audio transmission, from being taken into account in any administrative, judicial, or other governmental proceeding to set or adjust the royalties payable to copyright owners of musical works for the public performance of their works.

Requires Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJs), when setting royalty rates under the compulsory license available for the reproduction and distribution of musical works (commonly referred to as a "mechanical license"), to establish rates and terms that most clearly represent the rates and terms that would have been negotiated in the marketplace between a willing buyer and seller.

Requires CRJs, in establishing such rates and terms, to base their decision on marketplace, economic, and use information presented by the participants. Allows consideration of comparable uses and circumstances under voluntary license agreements.
Bill 114-HR-1457 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Allocation for Music Producers Act or the AMP Act

Amends federal copyright law to require a collective designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges to implement a policy providing for the acceptance of instructions (referred to as a "letter of direction") from a person who owns the exclusive right to publicly perform a sound recording by means of a digital audio transmission, or from a recording artist of a such a sound recording, to distribute a portion of royalty payments to a producer, mixer, or sound engineer who was part of the creative process behind the sound recording.

Requires the collective to adopt special procedures for a producer, mixer, or sound engineer to receive a portion of royalties for recordings fixed before November 1, 1995, by certifying that a reasonable effort has been made to obtain a letter of direction from an artist who owns the right to receipts payable with respect to the sound recording.
Bill 114-HR-1587 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Unlocking Technology Act of 2015

Amends the prohibition under federal copyright law on the circumvention of a technological measure that controls access to a copyright-protected work to require that such prohibition apply only to circumventions carried out in order to infringe or facilitate infringement of a protected work.

Declares that it shall not be a violation to: (1) circumvent a technological measure if the purpose is to engage in a use that is not an infringement of federal copyright law; or (2) use, manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part primarily designed or produced to facilitate noninfringing uses of protected works by circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to such work, unless the intent is to infringe or facilitate infringement of a copyright.

Declares that it is not an infringement to copy or adapt the software or firmware of a user-purchased mobile communications device for the sole purpose of enabling the device to connect to a wireless communications network if: (1) the copying or adapting is initiated by, or with the consent of, the owner of that device or the owner's agent; (2) the owner or agent is in legal possession of the device; and (3) the owner has the consent of, or an agreement with, the authorized operator of such wireless communications network to make use of its network. (Thus, allows the "unlocking" of mobile devices without requiring an owner to obtain the consent of the initial carrier network before switching to a new carrier.)

Directs the President to ensure that applicable bilateral and multilateral trade agreements are modified to be consistent with this Act.
Bill 114-HR-1627 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Law

No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act

Amends the Department of Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999 to prohibit U.S. courts from recognizing, enforcing, or otherwise validating any assertion of rights by an individual (under current law, by a designated Cuban national) of a mark, trade name, or commercial name that was used in connection with a business or assets that were confiscated by the Cuban government unless the original owner of such mark or name, or such owner's bona fide successor, has expressly consented. Applies such prohibition only if the individual asserting the rights knew or had reason to know at the time of acquiring the rights asserted that the mark or name was the same or substantially similar to the mark or name used in connection with the business or assets that were confiscated.
Bill 114-HR-1791 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Grace Period Restoration Act of 2015

Amends federal patent law to revise the one-year grace period under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) that prohibits certain pre-filing disclosures made during the year preceding the effective filing date of a claimed invention from being considered prior art that would make the claim ineligible for a patent based on lack of novelty or obvious subject matter grounds. (A disclosure that is prior art generally means that a patent cannot be issued for a claimed invention because the invention was already patented, described in a printed publication, in public use, on sale, available to the public, or described in an issued patent or a previously filed application.)

Prohibits an inventor's or any other person's pre-filing disclosure from barring the patentability of certain claims based on lack of novelty or obvious subject matter grounds if, before such disclosure and within the one-year period before the filing date, the claimed invention was already publicly disclosed in a printed publication by the inventor, a joint inventor, or another who obtained the claimed invention from the inventor or a joint inventor. Allows an inventor who discloses an invention in a printed publication in such a manner in the year before filing a patent claim for the invention to remain entitled to the patent, regardless of any subsequent disclosures by third parties.

Excludes certain disclosures from being considered prior art under the revised grace period.

Requires the amendments made by this Act to take effect as if enacted as part of the AIA.
Bill 114-HR-1832 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Innovation Protection Act

Establishes in the Treasury the United States Patent and Trademark Office Public Enterprise Fund (Public Enterprise Fund) to be used as a revolving fund by the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) without fiscal year limitation.

Requires to be credited to or deposited in the Public Enterprise Fund: (1) appropriations for defraying the costs of USPTO activities; (2) fees collected under federal patent and trademark laws; and (3) any unobligated balances remaining in the Patent and Trademark Office Appropriation Account and in the Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund. (Thus, replaces the Patent and Trademark Office Appropriation Account, eliminates the Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund, and provides a source of permanent funding for the USPTO.)

Requires fees collected by the Director to remain available to the Director until expended.

Makes the Public Enterprise Fund available to cover: (1) ordinary and reasonable administrative, operating, and other expenses incurred by the Director for the continued operation of USPTO services, programs, activities, and duties relating to patents and trademarks; and (2) expenses incurred pursuant to obligations, representations, or other commitments of the USPTO.

Requires the Director, on an annual basis, to: (1) report to Congress with operation and spending plans, including financial details and staff levels broken down by each major activity; (2) provide for an independent audit of USPTO financial statements; and (3) submit a budget to the President.
Bill 114-HR-1881 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

American Royalties Too Act of 2015

Expands copyright owners' exclusive rights, in the case of a work of visual art, to include the right to collect or authorize the collection of a royalty if the work is sold by a person other than the author for at least $5,000 in an auction.

Defines "auction" as a public sale of visual art to the highest bidder run by an entity that sold at least $1 million of works of visual art during the previous year.

Revises the term "work of visual art" to make requirements for photographs consistent with requirements for paintings, drawings, and prints. (Currently, a photograph must be a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only.)

Limits the amount of such a royalty to the lesser of: (1) 5% of the purchase price; or (2) $35,000, subject to cost-of-living adjustments.

Directs entities conducting such auctions to collect and pay the royalties to a visual artists' copyright collecting society. Requires the collecting society, at least four times each year, to distribute the appropriate royalties (minus administrative expenses) to authors or successor copyright owners.

Requires an author of a work of visual art, in order to be eligible to receive such a royalty, to: (1) be a citizen of, or domiciled in, the United States or a country that provides resale royalty rights; or (2) have first created the work in the United States or a country that provides such royalty rights.

Establishes a copyright infringement offense for the failure to pay such a royalty. Subjects infringers to: (1) statutory damages, and (2) liability for the full royalty.

Prohibits the sale, assignment, or waiver of the right to collect such a royalty, subject to exceptions for works made for hire and transfers of copyright ownership.

Directs the Register of Copyrights to issue regulations governing visual artists' copyright collecting societies.
Bill 114-HR-1883 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Breaking Down Barriers to Innovation Act of 2015

Revises procedures established under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for the Librarian of Congress to conduct an administrative rulemaking every three years to determine whether to exempt certain noninfringing uses of a copyrighted work from the statutory prohibition on circumventing a technological measure controlling access to a particular class of work.

Requires the Librarian, when evaluating whether to allow an administrative exemption, to consider the impact of the circumvention prohibition on: (1) any reduction in the availability for use of copyrighted works; (2) repairs, recycling, or other fair uses when applied to copyrighted works, as well as access to information not subject to copyright protection; (3) accessibility of works and technologies for persons with disabilities; and (4) security research.

Prohibits the Librarian from placing the burden of proof on the proponent of an exemption. Requires consideration of the totality of the evidence.

Allows the Librarian to make administrative exemption determinations through rulemaking proceedings outside of the three-year review process if it is substantially likely that users of a copyrighted work are, or are likely to be in the succeeding three-year period, adversely affected by virtue of the prohibition in their ability to make noninfringing uses.

Requires the Librarian to automatically renew for an ensuing three-year period any exemptions granted under a rulemaking unless, as a result of changed circumstances, it is unlikely that users are adversely affected by the prohibition.

Establishes a presumption that users are likely to be adversely affected if a technological measure inhibits noninfringing uses that improve accessibility of works or technologies for persons with disabilities.

Expands existing statutory exceptions by removing certain restrictions and conditions that apply to permissible circumventions for:

 reverse engineering to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs; encryption research on copies, phonorecords, performances, or displays of a published work; activities to prevent the collection or dissemination of personally identifying information about a natural person; or authorized security testing on computer systems or networks.
Bill 114-HR-5093 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Technological Innovation through Modernizing Enforcement Act or the TIME Act

This bill amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to require any consent order entered into by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to include a termination clause providing for the order to expire not later than eight years after it is entered into, unless it relates to alleged fraud by an entity subject to the order and requires a longer time limit. In determining the time limit, the FTC must consider: (1) the impact of technological progress on the order's continuing relevance; and (2) whether an entity, without a consent order beyond eight years, would engage in activities that violate laws against unfair methods of competition, or against unfair or deceptive acts or practices, in or affecting commerce.

A consent order longer than five years that is unrelated to alleged fraud by the entity must include a clause providing for the FTC to review the order five years after it is entered into. The bill also allows entities subject to a consent order that is unrelated to alleged fraud and has been effective for at least five years to petition the FTC to terminate the order. If the FTC determines that such a consent order no longer serves its purposes, the FTC shall terminate the order.
Bill 114-HR-5115 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Statement on Unfairness Reinforcement and Emphasis Act or the SURE Act

This bill amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide additional factors for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider before it may declare acts or practices to be unlawful on the ground that they are unfair and likely to cause substantial injury to consumers.

Trivial or merely speculative injury or harm must be considered unlikely to cause substantial injury. But the FTC may consider substantial: (1) an injury that does small harm to a large number of people, or (2) a significant risk of concrete harm.

In determining the likelihood of substantial injury to consumers, the FTC must consider whether the act or practice results in: (1) monetary harm, (2) unwarranted health or safety risks, or (3) only emotional or other more subjective harm.

The FTC must also find an act or practice to be injurious in its net effects before it may be considered unfair. In determining the net effects, the FTC must consider: (1) remedy costs; and (2) burdens on society in general, such as increased paperwork or regulatory burdens or reduced incentives for innovation and capital formation.

The FTC may not second-guess consumer decisions, but may consider whether an act or practice unreasonably creates or takes advantage of an obstacle to the free exercise of consumer decisionmaking.
Bill 114-HR-5116 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Freeing Responsible and Effective Exchanges Act or the FREE Act

This bill amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to permit a bipartisan majority of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioners to hold a nonpublic meeting to discuss official business if: (1) no votes or actions are taken, (2) each person at the meeting is an FTC commissioner or employee, and (3) an attorney from the FTC's Office of General Counsel is present.

"Bipartisan majority" means a group of at least three commissioners that includes, for each political party of which any commissioner is a member, at least one commissioner who is a member of such political party and, if any commissioner has no political party affiliation, at least one unaffiliated commissioner.

Within two business days after such a nonpublic meeting, the FTC must disclose on its website: (1) a list of persons who attended such meeting; and (2) a summary of discussed matters, except for matters that are classified or otherwise exempt from disclosure.
Bill 114-HR-5239 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Protecting Consumers in Commerce Act of 2016

This bill amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to authorize the Federal Trade Commission to regulate common carriers subject to the Communications Act of 1934.
Bill 114-HR-5255 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

This bill amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide the Federal Trade Commission with enforcement authority against certain tax-exempt nonprofit charitable organizations.
Bill 114-S-328 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Amends trademark registration criteria under the Trademark Act of 1946 to allow the United States, or any state, municipality, county, political subdivision, or other governmental authority in the United States, to register with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office a trademark that consists of, or comprises, its own flag, coat of arms, or other official insignia. (Currently, an applicant's trademark registration is subject to refusal if the mark consists of, or comprises, the flag or coat of arms or other insignia of the United States, or of any state or municipality, or of any foreign nation.)
Bill 114-S-560 — Domestic Commerce / Copyrights and Patents
Subject: Commerce

Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales Act of 2015 or the PARTS Act 

Declares that it is not an act of infringement, with respect to a design patent that claims a component part of a motor vehicle as originally manufactured, to: (1) make, test, or offer to sell within, or import into, the United States any article of manufacture that is similar or the same in appearance to the component part claimed in such design patent if the purpose of such article is for the repair of a motor vehicle to restore its appearance as originally manufactured; or (2) use or sell within the United States any such same or similar articles for such restorations more than 30 months after the claimed component part is first offered for public sale as part of a motor vehicle in any country.

Defines: (1) "component part" as a component part of the exterior of a motor vehicle only (such as a hood, fender, tail light, side mirror, or quarter panel), excluding an inflatable restraint system or other component part located in the interior of a motor vehicle; and (2) "offer to sell" to include marketing or pre-sale distribution.

Applies this Act to any patent issued, or application filed, before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.