Ending automatic publication of patent applications

(a) Amendment Section 122(b) of title 35, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: (b) Publication (1) In general Each application for a patent shall be published, in accordance with procedures determined by the Director, only upon the request of the patent applicant. (2) Information released once a patent issues No information concerning a patent application shall be available to the public unless and until a patent issues.. (b) Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that— (1) automatic publication of patent applications after 18 months has harmed the progress of science and the useful arts by creating prior art by operation of law that prevents a patent owner from applying for a patent on the same invention if a patent does not issue; and (2) automatic publication of patent applications encourages early disclosure of claimed inventions and subjects innovative inventions and discoveries reduced to practice in the United States to theft or appropriation by foreign competitors.