After browsing the decision today in State of California v. Mullin that has initially struck down the $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, my mind turned to patent fees. It might be an interesting article for someone to analyze when fees imposed by an Executive Branch agency such as the Patent Office rise to the level of a tax. Two recent fee changes would be good vehicles for analysis — namely, (1) the recent fee change that increased fees for some continuation applications, and (2) the recent fee change that imposed fees for citing a large number of references. I think that would make an interesting article.
