It’s not patent “reform” when it would increase costs and risks for inventors.
Get ready: Another
ill-conceived piece of legislation is about to wallop the U.S. economy, this
time — adding insult to infringement — with a conservative-Republican gloss on
it.
In
their Wednesday NRO piece, “Restore the Founders’ Patent System,” my esteemed colleagues
Representative Bob Goodlatte and Senator Mike Lee spent their first four
paragraphs dishing out the boilerplate about the high importance the Founders
placed on protecting our most innovative citizens, while touting their
constitutional responsibility to curb abuses of the patent system.
All true and necessary.
But H.R. 3309, their supposed effort to live up to the Founders’ expectations,
which hit the House floor today, was never given the full airing promised, nor
time to hear the multitude of credible opponents — from academia, from the
legal profession, from independent inventors themselves. It even resembles
Obamacare in the manner in which its progress so far has abused the legislative
process.
The
bill moved out of Chairman Goodlatte’s Judiciary Committee the day before
Thanksgiving, when members had deserted Washington, and has been brought before
the full House before even a full legislative day had passed. Why the rush? Why
not wait until at least after the holidays for a vote?
I
implore my colleagues to find out what’s in the bill. They really can do that
before passing it.
Any
bill with “loser pays,” those golden words of the litigation-reform movement,
can enjoy an unquestioned pass in today’s House of Representatives.
But
the sad truth of the Goodlatte bill is that the losers are the little-guy,
independent inventors. The winners? The multinational corporations, with no
allegiance to America, who have been on a decades-long march to neuter our
patent system in the face of global competition.
We
are told this bill is aimed at the threat of “patent trolls.” And just who are
these miscreants? They are patent-holders or firms that represent
patent-holders. They are engaged in defending their rights against the
infringement of their own patents.
H.R.
3309 targets the wrong villains. Ample evidence shows convincingly that the
overwhelming number of infringement cases are genuine, and that the very term
“patent troll” is a catchy marketing designation designed to demonize inventors
independent of the corporate bigs.
These
patents are just as valid as any other one granted by the patent office, but
huge corporate infringers would have us believe these patents are questionable,
invalid, unworthy. That is not the case.
The
patents targeted by the multinational electronics firms, for instance, are
legitimate. They are projects of small inventors without the means to defend
their ownership rights. (Who said conservative Republicans were giving up crony
capitalism?)
And
just what makes these vilified patents different from the “good” patents owned
by the larger corporations themselves? To my conservative brethren: We are
experiencing calculated confusion.
If
the small inventor doesn’t have the resources to enforce a patent, an
individual or company can still buy the rights from him or create a partnership
to assure he isn’t cheated out of rightful compensation. But they’re left
with a pebble vs. a mighty swift sword.
Typically,
Goliaths win. Well-funded corporations deploying entire legal departments
rightly see the Goodlatte bill as a means to encode the independents’
disadvantage. I have spoken with independent inventors, conservative political
groups, the American Bar Association, industry groups and universities, and all
of them recognize the horrifying imbalance.
Source:
National Review Online, December 4, 2013 4:30 PM By Dana Rohrabacher
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