President Donald Trump is a believer in the “Laffer curve,” so named for economist Arthur Laffer and his work connecting the dots between taxation and productivity.
In 2019, Trump said Laffer proved “the most powerful way to grow the economy and raise government revenue was not to increase tax rates but to adopt strong incentives that unleash the power of human freedom and innovation, create jobs and deliver greater opportunity to all Americans.”
So why is Trump’s commerce secretary musing about taking a bigger bite out of the fees paid by patent and trademark applicants?
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently suggested the government collect half of the patent revenue from U.S. universities for discoveries made using federal research grants. That’s a sharp increase from an existing fee schedule that will produce an estimated $4.5 billion to run the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this year.
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