Senator Coons recently wrote about a looming crisis in America -- a record backlog of patent applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. While Senator Coons is 100% correct about the importance of innovation to our economy, and about the foolishness of continuing to allow this backlog of patents to cripple American job creation, he is 100% wrong about H.R. 1249, the America Invents Act. Unfortunately, the authors of this bill are using the funding issue and the patent backlog crisis to implement radical changes on our patent system, which is the very engine of American job growth. This unconstitutional legislation will create new problems for our nation's inventors, entrepreneurs and our economy.
In the name of harmonizing our laws with other countries, Congress is about to dramatically diminish the patent protections offered to American innovators over the history of our Republic. If this globalist maneuver succeeds it will severely weaken our patent system and America will have lost the value of its greatest asset: the creative genius of our people. This is no joke. S. 23 has already passed the Senate, and H.R. 1249 has passed the House Judiciary Committee. If enacted into law, provisions of this legislative onslaught will put America's inventors at the mercy of multinational corporations and state-sponsored cyber thieves.
This pending legislation mandates patents not be awarded to the inventor of new technology, but instead to the "first entity to file" for a relevant patent.
The first language suggested by the authors of this legislation left out "inventors" altogether, but once this blatant attack became clear, the authors added the word "inventor" to "First Inventor to File" in order to confuse anyone not closely following this bill. This word-game is arrogant and insulting. Anyone filing can claim to be an inventor. There is, in reality, only one inventor... others aided by information sources within an inventor's circle of associates, or hacked from an inventor's computer. Whatever method, there is only one "inventor", be it a company or a single individual. To claim otherwise, as this legislation does, will lead to injustice. The U.S. government will have setup the rules to allow Chinese probers, for example, to file the paperwork, pay a fee, and legally steal America's creative genius. The "real inventor" is of no concern to this proposed system. CHINA WANTS TO CHANGE THE PATENT RULES TO HELP INFRINGERS FILE FIRST. This is totally out-of-sync with American tradition and contrary to our fundamental law; and it's being changed to HARMONIZE our strong protections with weaker protections in Europe, Japan.
The second deadly component of this pending patent legislation is that it adds onto the process a whole new review, also known as a legal challenge, to a patent after it is issued. Again, the victimization of American inventors is obvious. Multinational corporations, and even just regular foreign companies, will be able to tie-up a patent owner in court, and pile monstrous expenses on the inventor to defend the patent they have been granted. And unless the inventor is already wealthy, he or she will be forced to sell at bargain prices. It happens overseas all the time. It will happen to our guys when patent law is harmonized.
Make no mistake, this pending legislation is being pushed by the globalist corporate elite who have sought to dismantle America's patent system for decades. Today, their dream is closer than ever to becoming our nightmare. They present this legislation as if it merely tweaks our patent system, instead of attacking it. Senator Coons wasn't yet in Washington the last time this legislation came to the floor, so he doesn't remember the last assault on our nation's innovators, or the ones before that. We stopped this attack before, and we must do it again! This legislation poisons the long-term health of American competitiveness and national security.
Congress needs to hear from the working people of this nation rather than the multinational corporations, who could care less what this bill will do to the future of America.
All of my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, should oppose this unconstitutional overreach, which will undermine our future, and pass legislation that fully funds the patent office with our current patent laws in place. Only then can we reduce the backlog of patent applications while maintaining the strength of our patent system by fully protecting inventors from infringers at home, and from around the world.
That's all.
They didn't want to create any type of intellectual property that could be bought and sold and hamper the free development of ideas and works of art.
Just another transfer of wealth and all source of new technology in to the rich corporations and military.
You are entirely correct -Coons is wrong.
Just because they call it “reform” doesn’t mean it is. Patent reform is a fraud on America. This bill will not do what they claim it will. What it will do is help large multinational corporations maintain their monopolies by robbing and killing their small entity and startup competitors (so it will do exactly what the large multinationals paid for) and with them the jobs they would have created. According to recent studies by the Kauffman Foundation and economists at the U.S. Census Bureau, “startups aren’t everything when it comes to job growth. They’re the only thing.” This bill is a wholesale slaughter of US jobs. Those wishing to help in the fight to defeat this bill should contact us as below.
Small entities and inventors have been given far too little voice on this bill when one considers that they rely far more heavily on the patent system than do large firms who can control their markets by their size alone. The smaller the firm, the more they rely on patents -especially startups and individual inventors. Yet small entities create the lion's share of new jobs.
Please see http://truereform.piausa.org/ for a different/opposing view on patent reform.
http://docs.piausa.org/
This has always been the case and why I argue "tariffs for countries should be looked at like royalties for companies". They both protect against another entity coming in and stealing their ideas and producing it for sale intheir markets at a lower cost.
There's a lot of power in this little office. The president can right a lot of what's wrong economically just through this office that is part of the commerce cabinet position.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution states:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
An inventor is a person who creates something new. With the Feinstein amendment voted down, S.23 now called “Invent America Act” changes the U.S. to a “First to File” country. This violates the Constitutional mandate. By changing our patent laws to a first to file rule, Congress is not securing the exclusive rights of inventors. It is taking rights from inventors and giving them the person who games the legal system most effectively – files first.
Congress cannot just ignore the definition of inventor. This is not Alice in Wonderland. The inventor is the person who first creates something. S.23, the “Invent America Act” is unconstitutional.
I'll give you an example. If Congress passes a law tomorrow that says "all patients at a hospital get $100", then it needs to define what constitutes a patient and what constitutes a hospital. It would be perfectly constitutional to define hospital as "place where you have more than 100 doctors employed", contrary to the common English definition.
There's also the matter of legal presumptions. It would be perfectly constitutional for Congress to pass a law that it's a legal presumption that the first person to file is also the inventor.
'Make no mistake, this pending legislation is being pushed by the globalist corporate elite who have sought to dismantle America's patent system for decades'.
The International Free Trade Agreements have always been about reducing Government regulations, supporting Corporate growth and decreasing the capabilities of either individuals or sovereign governments from protecting their own.
Time for a Great Renewal. We need to grow the policies, laws, institutions, organizations, behaviors and language that support our Planet and Humanity not just the movable dollar and control over all resources.
Let's set-aside, first of all, the fond notion of "the lone inventor." Most ideas, including virtually all of those filed by Thomas Edison, were not ever the invention of just one person who dreamed up an idea before anyone else did. There's almost always a team of people involved. And patents are supposed to be about implementations, anyway; not ideas.
Success has many fathers; failure has none. Just ask Mark Z of Facebook. Heck, gimme any old invention and I'm gonna run right to court and say that the patent should be mine because, lo and behold, I thought of it sooner.
No, Dana, that's not the real issue here. The real issue is the patent system itself. It's not "who patents what," but 'what's patented." Thousands of patents are filed every day, and someone's supposed to sit there "examining" them? In your dreams. (Thump! Next!! Stamp! Next!!)
Turn on your phone. Wait for it to start up. Do you know how many "patented" things you just saw? How about a website to track serial numbers of dollar bills? Yup. "Patent pending."
Focus Congress' attention on THAT.
First of all, serious inventors are not in the business of patenting 'ideas'. Can't be done. The purpose of filing for an individual patent is to protect one's property rights, should an invention actually go into production, either by the inventor/legal representatives, themselves, OR by others who attempt to steal/utilize without knowledge, permission, or prior agreement, an inventor's ORIGINAL technology - for profit.
I don't usually care much for Dana Rohrbacher's opinion on much of anything, but I agree that our legislators, and President Obama, need to pay strict attention, here.
Yet another area where the Tea Partier's/Bush GOP would attempt to set our country back 150 years, given their way!
I appreciate the head's up, as my great great grandfather, who was in the textile business and invented a process for 'pin striping', got screwed by DuPont - or so the old family story goes.
I guess it's true. I certainly believe it can happen.
Invention by "teams" wrong- just take a random sample of patents and show me the count of those with more then 4 inventors. Now take the patents that are "core" to new fields, actual disruptive patents, the majority are less then 3 inventors.
You obviously have not practiced what you B.S. about.
As to "implementation" you are also wrong. Patents teach a best way, but that is the best way first put forward by the inventor (a series of ideas and plans) not the actual process that in the end becomes the product, and product making process.
Only the wealthy, successful corporation can afford to develop something truly new and then patent the final process.
Yes, completely TERRIBLE patent changes. My friends and I are serial inventors and entrepreneurs.
I was recently at Stanford Medical School for an event with USPTO Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office David Kappos concerning medical and life science intellectual property. Kappos is an inspiring guy who knew his stuff and had a great team. I was hoping we were on the right track but I realize he's formerly head of IP for IBM.
Current Patent Laws Help Global Elite
Just ask Big Pharma or makers of clunky software.
...So why are you making a big deal out of this right now? You're locking on to one provision of a bill which sounds objectionable, but, I'd much rather be listening to attempts to deal with the major issues here. "China is going to steal our patents" really sounds more like jingoist protectionism then anything else.
The patent backlog is a problem and the reason is in large measure foreign applications from CHINA, JAPAN, and the EU. In addition it is also the siphoning off of fees for the PTO by a Congress as greedy as Wall Street.
We need to promote small inventors/start-ups and the voices of individual inventors need to be heard in the House and Senate. Until this happens no bill should pass.