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PATENT OFFICE ROUTINELY DISCLOSES INVENTOR TAX RETURNS

September 06, 2005

Now this will encourage our innovators:

In a practice that brings up serious personal privacy issues, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) routinely makes available to the public tax returns and other personal information about inventors, an investigation by Tax Analysts has revealed.

Few inventors are aware that their tax and financial
records, which they are often required to submit
to the USPTO if they fall behind on their patent
maintenance fees, are available for public inspection.

During recent trips to the USPTO file information
unit in Crystal City, Va., Tax Analysts retrieved
more than a dozen patent files on inventors from
across the country that contain individual and joint
federal tax returns, wage and withholding reports,
monthly bank statements, Social Security Administration
benefit statements, credit reports, and mortgage
foreclosure warnings. Included in those documents
are names, Social Security numbers, credit
card numbers, bank account numbers, home addresses,
income data, mortgage histories, and student
identification numbers.

The patent office sometimes collects tax returns from inventors who fail to pay their patent fees on time. It then considers the returns public information, available to all comers.

That's quite a contrast with private-sector users of tax information, such as banks; if they disclose the information, they face up to five years in prison.

(Via Tax Analysts; available for free on their home page).

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