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.