113 STAT. 1501A-590 PUBLIC LAW 106-113—APPENDIX I (2) CONTINUATION OF MAINTENANCE.— The Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall not, pursuant to the amendment made by paragraph (1), cease to maintain, for use by the public, paper or microform collections of United States patents, foreign patent documents, and United States trademark registrations, except pursuant to notice and opportunity for public comment and except that the Director shall first submit a report to the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives detailing such plan, including a description of the mechanisms in place to ensure the integrity of such collections and the data contained therein, as well as to ensure prompt public access to the most current available information, and certifying that the implementation of such plan will not negatively impact the public. SEC. 4805. STUDY AND REPORT ON BIOLOGICAL DEPOSITS IN SUP- PORT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY PATENTS. (a) IN GENERAL. —Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States, in consultation with the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, shall conduct a study and submit a report to Congress on the potential risks to the United States biotechnology industry relating to biological deposits in support of biotechnology patents. (b) CONTENTS. —The study conducted under this section shall include— (1) an examination of the risk of export and the risk of transfers to third parties of biological deposits, and the risks posed by the change to 18-month publication requirements made by this subtitle; (2) an analysis of comparative legal and regulatory regimes; and (3) any related recommendations. (c) CONSIDERATION OF REPORT.— In drafting regulations affecting biological deposits (including any modification of title 37, Code of Federal Regulations, section 1.801 et seq.), the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall consider the recommendations of the study conducted under this section. SEC. 4806. PRIOR INVENTION, Section 102(g) of title 35, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: "(g)(1) during the course of an interference conducted under section 135 or section 291, another inventor involved therein establishes, to the extent permitted in section 104, that before such person's invention thereof the invention was made by such other inventor and not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed, or (2) before such person's invention thereof, the invention was made in this country by another inventor who had not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed it. In determining priority of invention under this subsection, there shall be considered not only the respective dates of conception and reduction to practice of the invention, but also the reasonable diligence of one who was first to conceive and last to reduce to practice, from a time prior to conception by the other.".
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