**AMERICAN PATENT LAW \-- (House of Representatives - September 04,
2007)**

\-\--

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker\'s announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. *Rohrabacher*) is
recognized for 60 minutes.

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, tonight I would like to raise a red flag
to draw attention, the attention of my fellow Members, who are here
assembled, as well as those listening on C-SPAN and those who will be
reading this in the *Congressional Record*.

On Friday, legislation is scheduled to come to the floor of the House
that will have a huge impact on the American people, yet it is receiving
little attention. What is it? It is a proposal to dramatically diminish
a constitutionally protected right by fundamentally altering America\'s
patent system.

If H.R. 1908, the bill in question, passes, there will be tremendous
long-term negative consequences for our country.

Patent law is thought to be so complicated and esoteric that most people
tune out once they realize that\'s what the subject is. Yet our
technological genius and the laws protecting and promoting that genius
have been at the heart of America\'s success as a Nation. America\'s
technological edge has permitted the American people to have the highest
standard of living in the world and permitted our country to sail safely
through troubled waters, the troubled waters of world wars and
international threats.

American technology has made all the difference. And it is the American
patent law that has determined what technology, what level of technology
development that America has had. Protecting individual rights, even of
the little guy, has been the hallmark of our country. Patent rights, the
right to own one\'s creation, are one of those rights that are written
into the United States Constitution. In fact, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson, George Washington and others, all our Founding Fathers were
not only people that believed in freedom, but they also believed in
technology and the potential of American genius. Visit Monticello and
see what Thomas Jefferson did with the time after he penned the words of
the Declaration of Independence and after he served as President of the
United States. He went back to Monticello and he spent his time
inventing things, inventing pieces of equipment and technologies that
would lift the burden from the shoulders of labor.

And then there was Benjamin Franklin, again, a man who participated in
the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution. He was the
inventor of the bifocal. He was the inventor of the stove that kept
people warm. Until then people only had fireplaces. He had many other
inventions to his name. Yet he was also a man, one of our cherished
Founding Fathers, who helped us create this free Nation. He believed in
freedom and technology and believed that with freedom and technology we
could increase the standard of living of our people, not just the elite,
but of all the American people.

We have had the strongest protection system in terms of patents in the
world; and that is why, in the history of humankind, there has never
been a more innovative or creative people. It didn\'t just happen. It
happened because in our Constitution, our Founding Fathers saw to it
that the laws protecting one\'s intellectual creations, both technology
and written communications, that those creative people would own their
creations. No, it\'s not just the diversity of our society that has
created the wondrous standard of living that we have all bragged about.
This is not simply the diversity of our people and some notion that we
have by coming from all over the world that has created the idea that
all people should have opportunity and provided our people with
opportunity. No, the innovation and progress and opportunity that we\'ve
enjoyed in America can be traced to our law, the law that protected the
property rights of our people, just as we protected the political, just
as we\'ve protected the personal rights of our citizens.

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. But he also invented
interchangeable parts for manufacturing. How did that change America?
How did that change the world? It uplifted us so people could have
different sets of clothing that they could wear. The common person was
helped by the fact of America\'s creative genius. Eli Whitney was a
product of the American Constitution.

Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper. Before that people had to carry
heavy pieces of equipment, scythes and reapers that were based on human
strength and not strength of technology. With the invention of the
reaper, people had more food, people had full stomachs.

Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, and from it came, of course, the
telephone. And then there was Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb
and so many of the other inventions. These were not just accidents.
These were created because these people were able to flourish because
they had constitutional protections for their rights of their invention.

One segment of our population, black Americans, were prolific inventors.
Even at times when their rights were not being recognized, even when
they faced major discrimination in our country, and at that time, even
then, the issue of patent protection for our black citizens was
recognized and because of that, many black Americans excelled in the
area of inventions, men like Jan Matzeliger, who invented a machine that
was used in shoe manufacturing. And before Matzeliger, and he was a
former black slave, before he invented this shoe manufacturing machine,
people in this country and all over the world usually wore one or two
pairs of shoes for their entire life. And it was he that brought down
dramatically, brought down the cost of shoes for the entire population.
One of our product American black inventors.

George Washington Carver, a world respected scientist and inventor, and
so many more in the black community. Why? Because in that era, when
blacks were discriminated against, as I say, we actually respected the
rights of ownership of black inventors and thus they excelled when their
rights were protected.

We are proud of our history of technology, because we know, as
Americans, we have, as we have always known throughout our country\'s
history, that these inventions that we\'re talking about, made by
Americans of every background, helped elevate the standard of living of
all Americans. It created more wealth, wealth that was created with less
labor and less burden on our people. It increased the standard of living
of working people in this country so that not only the elite prospered,
but all of the people had a full belly and clothes for their children.

The opportunity of all people who are part of the American brotherhood
and sisterhood, the well-being of those people can be traced, not just
to our diversity, which is something we celebrate, but also to the
constitutional protection of our rights. And one of those rights which
is so often overlooked is the right of people, the creators of new
ideas, to own those ideas, whether we\'re talking about the written word
or whether we\'re talking about technological advances.

And then of course, when we\'re talking about this, how can anyone
forget the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers. We remember the Wright
brothers. They were two guys who worked in a bicycle shop. They ended up
inventing something just less than 100 years ago, or just about 100
years ago actually, just a few more years than 100 years ago, and they
were told, 110 years ago that it was impossible for them to make this
invention. Yet, they went ahead. The elites were telling them it was
impossible. They went ahead and they spent their own money, their own
time. They saved up. They had very little capital. They were the
ultimate little guys, and they moved ahead and they did finally receive
a patent because they changed the future of humankind, because they were
the ones, of course, who took us from our feet planted on the ground to
taking us off the ground and putting us on the road to the heavens. Just
two ordinary Americans.

We Americans are proud that with our opportunity all people have a
chance and all people can help pull the rest of us up into the heavens
like the Wright brothers.

It was not only the raw muscle of every American. And so often people
mistakenly think that human progress is a result of whether people work
hard or not. That is not why people have higher standards of living.
There are many people all over the world who work hard. They work
strenuously hard. They work 15 hours a day. Their jobs are grueling. But
no matter how hard they work, their society doesn\'t progress. Their
families don\'t live any better.

No, hard work is not the only thing. Yes, hard work is part of it, but
ingenuity and creativity, the intellectual part of the equation is
vitally important to the success of any nation. And, yes, the legal
system is

also a vital part of that formula that will lead to uplifting all of
humankind and can be seen in the example of the United States. So, yes,
Americans work hard, just as others have. But Americans had their rights
protected under law. And that\'s what permitted the innovators and the
creators and the technologists to thrive in this country and what pulled
the standard of living of all of our people up. What was established was
a system in our Constitution and with our laws and our patent system
that would protect ingenuity and creativity.

We treated intellectual property, the creation of new technologies, as
we treated property, as we treated personal, and as we\'ve treated
political, rights. And that is what America is all about.

Every person has rights. Now, we didn\'t always live up to that dream;
and, yes, there was discrimination, terrible discrimination against
black citizens and we always have to recognize that. And against Indian
Americans and others. But we have tried our best, and we are moving
forward trying to perfect our system.

But every American, every American has benefited by the fact that our
technologies have been protected under constitutional law; and thus our
creators, our creative population has managed to bring about a higher
standard of living and opportunities for all Americans.

Today we face a great historical challenge. And this challenge comes at
exactly a time when our country is threatened from abroad economically,
as never before. We must prevail over our economic competitors and
adversaries, or the American people will suffer.

There are people who think of themselves at war with us. We know that
radical Islam thinks they\'re at war with us. But we also have people
who think they\'re at war with us economically. They\'re at war with the
well-being of the American people. They see us and the well-being of our
people as their target. We must win this war, this economic competition
that we are entering, this economic competition based not on hard work
but on technology and creative genius; and if we do not win this war,
our people will lose. Our people will lose especially if we permit the
technology and creative genius of our people to be stolen by people who
are our economic adversaries and to be used to outcompete our own
people. If we lose this battle, our people will suffer. Future
generations will see their standard of living decline, as well as the
safety and strength of our country. If we do not remain technologically
superior, we will find that in the future the livelihood of our people
and the safety of our country will be in jeopardy.

Our economic adversaries, and their allies within the American business
community, and let us note that, that our economic adversaries have
allies in multinational corporations, many of them who are, what, part
of the American business community. But these economic adversaries are
engaged in a systematic attack on our well-being, and thus they have
noticed one of the strongest and most important elements of America\'s
success has been the patent protection that we have offered the American
people.

Today, multinational corporations, some based here in the United States,
run by an elite whose allegiance is to no country, these people have
tremendous influence near the Nation\'s Capitol. You can see it when it
comes to China policy. You can see it when it comes to trade policy.
And, now, in their attempt to undermine patent protections, you can see
that in this effort to undermine the constitutional patent protections
that our people have enjoyed for over 200 years.

There is a corporate elite at play who don\'t give it a second thought
to move their manufacturing operations to China. Now, here you\'ve got
Americans supposedly, American businessmen. They\'re moving their
manufacturing to a country run by a Marxist dictatorship. This corporate
elite betrays American values and betrays the American working people
themselves. What? Why do they do this?

Well, they would rather exploit Chinese slave labor with the full
cooperation of a dictatorial Chinese regime, than they would pay the
market rate for the American working person and as well, which is part
of the price, of course, of having a free society in which they are
protected here at home. Yet, they would go to China and make a deal with
the world\'s worst human rights abuser to set up a manufacturing unit
there. And this very same elite will do that and betray the American
worker in order to make a 25 percent profit rather than a 10 percent or
a 5 percent profit at home, while at the same time the American working
people will get their share of the benefit because they\'re working in
that company. No, the American corporate elite that goes to China would
rather do that. Many of them, by the way, are part of the electronics
industry, as we know. The electronics industry has moved in a big way to
China. They\'ve even, in fact, claimed that, oh, well if we just have
more interaction economically with China, that, what will happen? Well,
China will evolve into a democratic society.

Yet, these same corporate leaders, supposedly Americans, help the
Chinese Government set up a computer system that will aid them in
tracking down democratic opponents of the dictatorship. We know now that
the Falun Gong in China is suffering immense repression, as are other
believers in God. Yet, we have a business elite that doesn\'t blink an
eye at that and goes there and invests their technology and their
capital in creating manufacturing there.

Well, people who will do that won\'t think twice about stealing a small
inventor\'s or a little guy\'s invention so that they won\'t have to pay
royalties to that American inventor. Why should they? If they are
willing to deal with the tyrants and the gangsters in China and betray
the American workers, why would they care about giving royalties to some
inventor? And what are they doing? They are helping steal the American
inventors\' products without giving the royalties, and, worse, they are
taking it to China to use in manufacturing facilities over there that
will even put more Americans out of work here.

How could any American do that? Well, they aren\'t Americans. What they
are, if you get right down to it, they are globalists. Yes, people have
to understand that here we are, our country has evolved into now this
new dichotomy of globalists versus patriots.

Well, put me on the side of the patriots. We are supposed to be watching
out for the interests of the American people. We are not supposed to be
watching out for the American business elite any more than we are
supposed to be watching out for the American worker. They are supposed
to have equal rights. And one of those rights has been the protection of
intellectual property. But the business and corporate elites that want
to move to China, the same ones who are behind this legislation, H.R.
1908, the electronics industry, want to steal the technology being
developed by the little guy in America so they won\'t have to pay
royalties. That is what it comes down to. And these same people who are
building the factories in China, the same people who are giving
technology to China, the same people now who want to take the ideas of
American inventors and take them to China and elsewhere without having
to pay royalties, these are the people behind 1908.

The justification for this attack on the patent system, guess what, it
is called harmonization of our laws with the rest of the world. If you
ask those people why do we have to make these fundamental changes to our
patent law? Our patent law has been there for 200 years. They will tell
you that we have to harmonize our law with the rest of the world and our
laws are totally different.

We cannot permit corporate elitists who consider themselves globalists
to mold our policies, especially if it means diminishing the legal
protections for our American citizens, especially those inventors and
creative people who are coming up with the technologies that Americans
are going to need to have if our country is to be prosperous and secure
in the future.

If the globalists are successful, 20 years from now our citizens will
wonder what hit them. Pearl Harbor happened in a moment. Our people woke
up to the threat and they mobilized. Today it is happening slowly, and
the attack is less evident. But rights are being eroded by the changes
in our law that will cause a decreasing standard of living to our people
and damage our way of life, and that damage will be devastating to the
American people in years ahead, and they will never know what hit them.
This attack is being conducted not by bombers in Pearl Harbor and
Hawaii, but it is being done by lobbyists in the Nation\'s capital who
are out to pillage our wealth and transfer that wealth and power
overseas. You see it everywhere.

Who is watching out for the interests of the American people? We will
let the public determine that. But first we have to get the public\'s
attention. And these moves on this patent bill have been so quiet. The
vote is going to be Friday, H.R. 1908. They are going to try to slip
this by. One of the steps necessary for them to transfer the wealth and
to cut down this dominance that the American people have over the global
economy, one of the things they have to do to achieve that goal so we
are harmonized with the rest of the world is to destroy our patent
system and make it like the patent system from other countries.

Lobbyists have been hired by well-heeled multinational corporations and
by companies who no longer have any desire to pay for the use of
technology that has been developed by other American citizens, little
guys. They, of course, are not saying we are out to destroy the patent
system. They will be aghast when they hear that I am suggesting they
want to destroy the patent system. They know that is what it is, but
they will act like they are aghast.

Now, there are lots of flaws in our patent system. We hear about a
widespread problem, and there are some problems. But we know that many
of the problems are just being exaggerated. For example, we hear horror
stories concerning companies that are tied up for years in court and
eventually have to relent to trial lawyers in terms about delays in the
system. We hear about that. We hear about examiners who are overworked,
which is true. Our patent examiners are heavily overworked. They aren\'t
getting the training they need, and they are not getting the pay they
deserve. So we have got some problems in our patent system that we need
to take care of. But that has nothing to do with H.R. 1908.

In reality, of course, some of these problems aren\'t real. Patent
lawsuits are not a major problem, as people are claiming they are.
Between 1993 and 2005, the number of patent lawsuits versus the number
of patents granted has been steady at around 1.5 percent. In fact, in
2006 only 102 patent cases actually went to trial. So when they say we
have got to do this to correct the lawsuit problem, there isn\'t a major
lawsuit problem.

But there are real problems that need to be solved. Our patent
examiners, as I said, are overworked and they are underpaid. They need
to be trained. More money that comes from people buying patents, we need
to keep that right at the patent office and train those patent examiners
and give them the money they need so we can hire the top quality people.

Unfortunately, the legislation making its way through the system does
not correct the problems. The problems are being used as an excuse, but
the proposed changes that we are talking about here are not dealing with
the problems. So there must be some other goal of this legislation.

So let\'s understand we need patent legislation that speeds up the
patent process, provides training and compensation for the patent
examiners, and helps us protect our inventors against theft. Yes, we
need to help our inventors protect themselves against foreign threat
and, yes, even domestic threat. And we need to put some work into patent
reform which will protect our inventors. Well, the bill that we are
talking about has nothing to do with that. A bill that handled those
goals would be justified and welcomed.

Unfortunately, what we are witnessing is a replay of the illegal
immigration strategy. The American people are crying out for protection
against a virtual invasion of illegal immigrants into our country. The
special interests who benefited by this flood of illegals tried to push
an immigration bill through the Congress that would have made the
situation worse. That\'s right. They had a bill in the name of illegal
immigration reform that would have made it worse. To confuse the public,
they kept calling it a \`\`comprehensive\'\' bill as if it was designed
to fix the problem. Instead, it was designed for one thing and one thing
only. The comprehensive bill for illegal immigration was designed to
give amnesty to all those illegals who came here illegally, which would
have attracted, had we given them that amnesty, tens of millions of more
illegals into our country. So it would have made it worse. But with a
straight face, those who were advocating illegal immigration reform kept
calling it a \`\`comprehensive\'\' plan even though they knew that
implied they were reforming the system to make it better when, in fact,
they were going the opposite direction of what the vast majority of
people knew was the problem. And the problem was what? A huge influx of
illegal immigrants into our country, and giving amnesty would have made
it worse.

Well, the same strategy is seemingly being used by those who are behind
the effort to destroy the American patent system. So you will never hear
them say they want to destroy the American patent system the same way
that the advocates of comprehensive immigration would never admit what
they were doing was amnesty. No, they are out to destroy the patent
system as it has worked since the founding of our country. Instead of
arguing their case, they are simply calling it a \`\`comprehensive\'\'
bill. Does that sound familiar? A \`\`comprehensive patent bill,\'\'
that makes it sound like you are going to make it better. No, you are
out to destroy the patent system. A \`\`comprehensive immigration
bill,\'\' that sounds like you want to end this immigration influx into
our country. No, it is going to make it worse. Well, that is why the
American people are a little bit confused.

Who is watching out for the American people? The American people have
got to pay attention to this.

This bill, H.R. 1809, is similar to the one that we barely beat back 10
years ago. I called that the \`\`Steal American Technologies Act,\'\'
and that was back 10 years ago. And, believe me, we were up against the
most powerful corporations. We were just a ragtag group of people. Marcy
Kaptur on that side of the aisle and Steny Hoyer helped us out as well,
Don Manzullo and myself and just a couple others. We fought these
special interests, and no one thought we had a chance. But we won. And
we won because the American people got wind of what was happening, and
we won. We beat it back, and that was in 1997. But here we go again with
a bill that looks almost exactly like that bill in so many ways. So I
will just call H.R. 1809 the \`\`Steal American Technologies Act, Part
Two.\'\'

First and foremost, we have to, of course, look at what does H.R. 1908
do? First and foremost, it is designed to weaken the patent protection
of the American inventor. So let\'s just note that right off. The
purpose of the bill is to weaken the patent protection, the
constitutional rights that the American inventor has had since the
founding of our country.

I support real reform, as do the others who oppose this bill, but the
proposed changes in H.R. 1908 will cause the collapse of the American
patent system, the system that has sustained America for 200 years, and
that is the real purpose behind this bill. Make no mistake about it.

For the *Record* I would submit a list of those major people and
organizations who are opposed to the bill, Mr. Speaker.

At this point in my remarks, I submit that list for the *Record*.

> **Organizations and Companies With Objections to Berman Patent
> Legislation (H.R. 1908)**
>
> 3M, Abbott Accelerated Technologies, Inc., Acorn Cardiovascular Inc.,
> Adams Capital Management, Adroit Medical Systems, Inc., AdvaMed,
> Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc., Advanced Medical Optics, Inc.,
> Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, Inc., Aero-Marine Company, AFL-CIO,
> African American Republican Leadership Council, AIPLA\--American
> Intellectual Property Law Association, Air Liquide, Air Products, ALD
> NanoSolutions, Inc., ALIO Industries, Allergan, Inc., Almyra, Inc.,
> AmberWave Systems Corporation, American Conservative Union (The),
> American Intellectual property Law, Association (AIPLA), American Seed
> Trade, Americans for Sovereignty, Americans for the Preservation of
> Liberty, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, AngioDynamics, Inc., Applied Medical,
> Applied Nanotech, Inc., Argentis Pharmaceuticals, LLC, Arizona
> Biolndustry Association, ARYx Therapeutics, Ascenta Therapeutics,
> Inc., Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), Asthmatx,
> Inc., AstraZeneca, Aware, Inc., Baxa Corporation, Baxter Healthcare
> Corporation, BayBio, Beckman Coulter, BIO\--Biotechnology Industry
> Organization, BioCardia, Inc., BIOCOM, Biogen Idec, Biomedical
> Association, BioOhio, Bioscience Institute, Biotechnology Council of
> New Jersey, Blacks for Economic Security Trust Fund, BlazeTech
> Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, Bridgestone Americas
> Holding, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb, BuzzLogic, California Healthcare
> Institute, California Healthcare Institute (The), Canopy Ventures,
> Carbide Derivative Technologies, Cardiac Concepts, Inc.,
> CardioDynamics, Cargill, Inc., Cassie-Shipherd Group (The),
> Caterpillar, Celgene Corporation, Cell Genesys, Inc., Center 7, Inc.,
> Center for Small Business and the Environment (The), Centre for
> Security Policy, Cephalon, CheckFree, Christian Coalition of America,
> Cincinnati Sub-Zero Products, Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform
> (The), Coalitions for America, CogniTek Management Systems, Inc.,
> Colorado Bioscience Association, Conceptus, Inc., CONNECT, Connecticut
> United for Research Excellence, Cornell University, Corning
> Incorporated, Coronis Medical Ventures, Council for America, CropLife
> America, Cryptography Research, Cummins-Allison Corporation, Cummins
> Inc., CVRx Inc., Dais Analytic Corporation, Dartmouth Regional
> Technology Center, Inc., Declaration Alliance, Deltanoid
> Pharmaceuticals, Digimarc Corporation, DirectPointe, Dow Chemical
> Company, Dupont, Dura-Line Corporation, Dynatronics Co., Eagle Forum,
> Eastman Chemical Company, Economic Development Center, Edwards
> Lifesciences, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Electronics for Imaging, Eli
> Lilly and Company, Ellman Innovations LLC, Enterprise Partners Venture
> Capital, Evalve, Inc., Exxon Mobile Corporation, Fallbrook
> Technologies Inc., FarSounder, Inc. Footnote.com., Gambro BCT, General
> Electric, Genomic Health, Inc., Gen-Probe Incorporated, Genzyme,
> Georgia Biomedical Partnership, Glacier Cross, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline,
> Glenview State Bank, Hawaii Science & Technology Council, HealthCare
> Institute of New Jersey, HeartWare, Inc., Helius, Inc., Henkel
> Corporation, Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., iBIO, Imago Scientific
> Instruments, Impulse Dynamics (USA), Inc., Indiana Health Industry
> Forum, Indiana University, Innovation Alliance, Institute of
> Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-USA, InterDigital
> Communications Corporation, Intermolecular, Inc., International
> Association of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE),
> Invitrogen Corporation, Iowa Biotechnology Association, ISTA
> Pharmaceuticals, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Johnson & Johnson,
> Leadership Institute (The), Let Freedom Ring, Life Science Alley,
> LITMUS, LLC., LSI Corporation, Lux Capital Management, Luxul
> Corporation, Maryland Taxpayers\' Association, Masimo Corporation,
> Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, MassMEDIC, Maxygen Inc.,
> MDMA\--Medical Device Manufacturer\'s Association, Medical College of
> Wisconsin, MedImmune, Inc., Medtronic, Merck, Metabasis Therapeutics,
> Inc., Metabolex, Inc., Metabolix, Inc., Metacure (USA), Inc., MGI
> Pharma Inc., MichBio, Michigan Small Tech Association, Michigan State
> University, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Milliken & Company,
> Mohr, Davidow Ventures, Monsanto Company, Motorola, NAM\--National
> Association of Manufacturers, NanoBioMagnetics, Inc. (NBMI),
> NanoBusiness Alliance (The), NanoInk, Inc., NanoIntegris, Inc.,
> Nanomix, Inc., Nanophase Technologies, NanoProducts Corporation,
> Nanosys, Inc., Nantero, Inc., National Center for Public Policy
> Research, Nektar Therapeutics, Neoconix, Inc., Neuro Resource Group
> (NRG), Neuronetics, Inc., NeuroPace, New England Innovation Alliance,
> New Hampshire Biotechnology Council, New Hampshire Department of
> Economic Development, New Mexico Biotechnical and Biomedical
> Association, New York Biotechnology Association, Norseman Group (The),
> North Carolina Biosciences Organization, North Carolina State
> University, North Dakota State University, Northrop Grumman
> Corporation, Northwestern University, Novartis Corporation, Novasys
> Medical Inc., NovoNordisk, NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NuVasive,
> Inc., Nuvelo, Inc., Ohio State University, OpenCEL, LLC, Palmetto
> Biotechnology Alliance, Patent Café.com, Inc., Patent Office
> Professional Association, Pennsylvania Bio, Pennsylvania State
> University, PepsiCo, Inc., Pfizer, PhRMA\--Pharmaceutical Research and
> Manufacturers of America, Physical Sciences Inc., PointeCast
> Corporation, Power Innovations International, PowerMetal Technologies,
> Inc., Preformed Line Products, Procter & Gamble, Professional
> Inventors\' Alliance, ProRhythm, Inc., Purdue University, Pure Plushy
> Inc., QUALCOMM Inc., QuantumSphere, Inc., QuesTek Innovations LLC,
> Radiant Medical, Inc., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Research
> Triangle Park, NC, Retractable Technologies, Inc., RightMarch.com, S &
> C Electric Company, Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sangamo Biosciences,
> Inc., ScanDisk Corporation, Semprius, Inc., Small Business Association
> of Michigan\--Economic Development Center, Small Business Exporters,
> Association of the United States (The), Small Business Technology
> Council (The), Smart Bomb Interactive, Smile Reminder, SmoothShapes,
> Inc., Solera Networks, South Dakota Biotech Association, Southern
> California Biomedical Council, Spiration, Inc., St. Louis University,
> Standup Bed Company (The), State of New Hampshire Department of
> Resources and Economic Development, Stella Group, Ltd. (The),
> StemCells, SurgiQuest, Inc., Symyx Technologies, Inc., Tech Council of
> Maryland/MdBio, Technology Patents & Licensing, Tennessee
> Biotechnology Association, Tessera, Inc., Texas A&M, Texas Healthcare,
> Texas Instruments, Three Arch Partners, United Technologies,
> University of California System, University of Illinois, University of
> Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of
> Minnesota, University of New Hampshire, University of North Carolina
> System, University of Rochester, University of Utah, University of
> Wisconsin-Madison, US Business and Industry Council, US Council for
> International Business, USGI Medical, USW\--United Steelworkers,
> Vanderbilt University and Medical Center, Virent Energy Systems, Inc.,
> Virginia Biotechnology Association, Visidyne, Inc., VisionCare
> Opthamalogic Technologies, Inc., Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical
> Association, Washington University, WaveRx, Inc., Wayne State
> University, Wescor, Inc., Weyerhaeuser, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &
> Rosati, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), Wisconsin
> Biotechnology and Medical Device Association, Wyeth.

That list includes some large companies. It includes biotech companies,
for example, who are putting out so much of the technology that we will
need for the future. It includes pharmaceuticals who know that there are
companies around the world who are waiting to steal the product after
they have spent hundreds of millions of American dollars into developing
new pharmaceuticals. Almost all of our major universities are against
this patent bill because they themselves are developing new technologies
and they know that the new patent bill will undermine, undermine, their
efforts to create these new technologies and to benefit from the
technologies, as they should because they are the creators. The patent
examiners are against this legislation. Labor unions are against this.
The AFL-CIO is against this legislation. That is why we have another
bipartisan coalition with Ms. *Kaptur* and Judge Hastings and others who
are on our side in this battle. It is a bipartisan Republican-Democrat
coalition. It is the patriots versus the globalists.

So why are so many opposed to it? Perhaps it\'s easiest to understand
the issue, because if you talk about what this bill does in terms of
disclosure, and what does that mean, in this bill it\'s called
publication.

From the founding of our country until recent years, it has been
mandated that every patent application be held confidential until the
patent was issued. So if you\'re an inventor and you\'ve got an idea and
you\'ve developed it, you filed the application; but you know that
that\'s going to be held secret. In fact, patent examiners could be put
in jail for felonies if they release that information.

Well, this, of course, is dramatically different than the rest of the
world. In the rest of the world, after 18 months, in Japan and Europe,
if you file for a patent, even if you don\'t get the patent, they\'re
going to publish it for everybody to see. And the inventor is so
vulnerable, they have to give up usually almost all the rights to the
things they\'ve invented. That\'s why you don\'t see the Japanese
inventing many things; they perfect things, but they don\'t invent them.

In short, this bill, H.R. 1908, the Steal American Technologies Act, the
sequel, now get into this, this is really important and it\'s easy to
understand. This bill would eliminate the right of confidentiality to
American inventors. What does that mean? H.R. 1908 would mandate the
publication of all patent applications 18 months after the patent is
applied for whether or not the patent has been granted.

Does everybody understand what we\'re talking about here? We\'re talking
about American inventors up until now have known, if they so chose to do
this, they would not have to reveal their secrets until the patent was
given to them. Thus they had some legal protection. This bill will take
that right away from the American inventors so that if they apply for a
patent on very sophisticated technological breakthroughs, the Chinese,
the Indians, the Japanese, the Koreans, they will have all have the
information and be in manufacturing before our small inventors even get
their patent.

With the Steal American Technologies Act, does that sound like that\'s
what I\'m describing? That\'s exactly what we\'re describing. We are
inviting the foreign thieves to come in and take our most precious
technological advances and use those technologies against us to put our
people out of work. That\'s why the labor unions are against this bill.
That\'s why the Democratic Party should be against this bill and the
Republican Party should be against it. That\'s why patriots should be
against it. It is easy for everyone to understand that.

Those pushing H.R. 1908 want China, Japan, Korea, India and others to
have every detail of developing technologies and of our creative ideas
even before the patents have been issued. This legislation will
facilitate China, India, and other countries in their efforts to steal
our creative genius. First they will say, oh, well the inventor then
could come back and sue these companies overseas who are using their
creation that they\'ve gotten by taking it from the information that was
published. Oh, give me a break. Does anyone really believe that an
American inventor can go to China or India and can sue after they\'ve
been in production for years? They can\'t even get the information of
how much has been produced over there at that time. So, yes, this is the
Steal American Technologies Act, and we have got to stop them.

Secondly, this bill changes the fundamental concept of the American
patent system, another fundamental concept which this will end up with
very dramatic and confusing consequences, although it is a little hard
to understand. Traditionally, ownership rights go to those inventors who
were the first ones to invent the technology in question. That does not
necessarily mean that they were the first one to actually file some type
of patent application that dealt with that particular issue or that
particular type of technology. No. If someone actually had an invention
of a machine, their patent, if they actually invented it and they could
prove that, it wasn\'t the first to file that counts, it was the person
who actually invented something. That was a principle in our system. And
basically what it did is it prevented businesses and individuals from
having to, for every time they made a little bit of progress, to go out
and try to apply for another patent.

Because with this system, what this bill will do, it will make sure that
businesses now will be flooding the Patent Office every time they make
one little step forward towards an eventual goal, rather than waiting
for the goal to be achieved and have a complete new system that can be
justified to have a patent.

So the people of the Patent Office believe that this change, which seems
innocuous, from something that has worked well for the United States for
200 years, has worked well for us, and now they want to change it so
that we can be like the rest of the world supposedly, while the rest of
the world, the only people who can operate at this level are these big
multinational corporations, the very elite rich guys. No. We want our
regular Americans to be able to operate under this system. And making it
first-to-file makes it so much more expensive because you have to apply
for so many more patents, the little guy gets frozen out. Of course
those people that are pushing this harmonization know that very well.
They just don\'t care about the little guy because they are Goliath, and
the little guy is just a little David down there.

I am very happy that the history of the United States Government is the
history of us being for the little guy over the big guy, that we protect
the rights of the little guy. That\'s why our patent law is different
than the patent law in Japan, where economic shoguns control their
economy.

The third, H.R. 1908 fundamentally changes the legal criteria in which
patents can be challenged. It provides numerous ways in which large
companies, foreigners, and other infringers can attack and add costs to
the inventors. So we\'ve added all sorts of new ways for those guys to
come in and attack that small inventor. We have opened up the system to
the point where the inventor can be attacked before the patent has been
granted, and also, the inventor can then, also with this legislation, be
attacked after the patent has been granted. And this again changes those
rules by offering new avenues to attack the small guy. Of course the big
guys don\'t care; they\'ve got lots of lawyers working for them. What
this will mean is the big guys can beat down the little guys just like
they do in Japan. Don\'t we want to harmonize with Japan? Don\'t we want
to have a society like Japan where ordinary citizens never dream about
increasing their standard of living and rising up and having their
children live better? No.

This bill is a catastrophe for the little inventor, and that\'s why we
have so many people who have opposed this bill, but yet it keeps moving
forward. It keeps moving forward because there are special interests who
will make huge sums of money by not having to may royalties, especially
in the electronics industry, which is different. Remember, they are
different, the electronics industry than pharmaceuticals and biotech and
the universities and the others and the smaller inventor. Why are they
different? Because what they do is they put together a product with many
different components, all of which you have to pay a royalty in order to
use them. They don\'t want to pay those royalties. They want to steal it
from the little guy. Well, I\'m sorry, the electronics industry has to
pay for what they use. They\'re not going to set up a system that
undermines the protection that the little guys, that we\'ve had for 200
years in this country.

This bill complicates efforts to establish willfulness on the part of an
infringer. So what happens is you have undermined some of the legal
criteria used in the case if a small inventor or someone does go after
an infringer. This bill changes some of the actual criteria that are
being used. It creates a re-examined practice for facilitating attacks
by infringers on legitimate patent holders. In short, this bill allows
large companies to swallow costs and risks so that it can beat down the
rightful owners of technology.

Now, it seems like a horror story to America\'s inventors, but we are
told what is really going on here, of course, as I keep saying, it\'s an
effort to harmonize our laws. Now, doesn\'t that sound nice? And
doesn\'t comprehensive reform sound nice? Just like comprehensive reform
sounded good for the immigration bill. We knew what that was now, don\'t
we? Comprehensive reform was a way to give amnesty and destroy our
protections against illegal immigration without having to ever confront
the argument.

This comprehensive reform of the patent system is the same strategy.
Yes, they are going to harmonize the law with the rest of the world.
That\'s harmony. That sounds like a wonderful word. And
\`\`comprehensive,\'\' that also sounds great.

Well, we have had the strongest patent protection of any country on this
planet, just as we had the same and the strongest protection for the
rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other rights that
we hold sacred. What would happen if in order to harmonize the freedom
of religion and freedom of speech for the rest of the world, we were
told that the protection of our freedoms that we now enjoy need to be
diminished so that they could be harmonized with the rest of the world?

Let\'s say we could be like the people of Singapore or some other
country that is not necessarily democratic, but is not a dictatorship
either. What would happen if the American people were told that? What
would happen, I would tell you, there would be a revolution through the
United States of America. You are not going to diminish the rights of
the American people in order to harmonize the law internationally.
Forget it. I don\'t care if it\'s personal rights, political rights,
property rights or technology and creative rights like we\'re talking
about tonight. The patriots in this country are not going to see their
rights diminished in order to create a new world order where we can all
live in harmony with the elite telling us what to do.

However, the move to harmonize patent law, of course, is going smoothly
right now, unlike it would if we tried to say we\'re going to bring down
and diminish all those other rights, because there would be a revolution
right now. But with patent law it\'s going a lot more smoothly.

In fact, it\'s coming up to a vote Friday and most people have no idea
it\'s coming to the floor, or most Americans and most people even in
this body have no idea of the significance of H.R. 1908. Why? Because
it\'s being kept very low key. There\'s no fanfare. Not many people can
even understand it. As I say, they tune out as soon as they hear the
word \`\`patent law.\'\' All of this, of course, while the freedom and
well-being of future generations is being frittered away.

We are on the edge. If this bill passes, it will have dramatic impact on
the well-being of average Americans. The fact is we have had the
strongest patent rights protection, and that is why we have had more
innovation and a higher standard of living than any other people in the
world. The common man here has the opportunity that common people in
other parts of the world do not have because America has had
technological superiority, and we\'ve had a system based on protecting
individual rights, the individual rights of the little guy, not just the
big guys.

If our rights to patent protection are diminished, which is what H.R.
1908 will do, if we do that, if we diminish the rights of our patent
protection in order to harmonize with the rest of the world, we will end
up with the same type of opportunity and the same type of rights that
they have in Third World countries.

Is that what we want? Do we want our people to have harmonized rights,
new world order so we can all live like they live in Third World
countries? Perhaps if someone is a corporate elitist who lives in a
gated community, that might sound good. Hey, we can have all kinds of
peons just walking around who will do my bidding and I can send my kids
to private school. We live behind a gated community, I can actually have
a driver and my kids can have nannies and we could have people cleaning
up the yard and I can have my manufacturing facility in China, where
they don\'t care if they\'re polluting the air or not. Boy, I\'ll tell
you, that doesn\'t hurt those guys because they don\'t identify, when
you say Third World country, they don\'t say, gee, I would be living
worse off, they think it\'s the other guy, the little guy. And they\'re
right, it\'s the little guys. Yeah. These people don\'t even want to pay
royalties.

The electronics industry, what this is based on, does not want to pay
royalties to the little guys. If you want to see anything more about
this, you want to know the historic background of it, go down to the
Nation\'s Capitol and you will find a statue to Philo Farnsworth. Philo
Farnsworth was the guy who invented the picture tube. RCA, Mr. Sarnoff,
the president of RCA, tried to steal that technology from Mr. Farnsworth
because he was just a little guy. And for 20 years they fought it out,
the biggest, most powerful corporation. Instead of just paying Mr.
Farnsworth a royalty and giving him some credit, they had to steal it
from him, to beat him down in the ground and smash him like a bug. But
luckily we live in the United States of America. That case went all the
way to the Supreme Court; and God bless America, the Supreme Court sided
with Farnsworth instead of this RCA that tried to dominate this man who
gave them the genius that they needed to make the picture tube work. We
wouldn\'t have had it. They were going in the exactly the wrong
direction, but they couldn\'t even give him the credit.

That\'s what the corporate elite thinks about us little guys. That\'s
the way they do it. That\'s why they want to change constitutional
protections, make it a new world order. That\'s why we have all of this
talk about globalism and all these international bodies that we\'re
going to give power to because our corporate elite doesn\'t feel
threatened by that, but each and every American should because none of
those people overseas are going to watch out for us.

H.R. 1908 is coming up on Friday. It\'s a major attack on a
constitutional right that\'s been part of the American system, part of
the American system since the founding of your country. It\'s written
into our Constitution.

We cannot make those changes and expect things are going to stay the
same. But we beat this before. *Marcy Kaptur, Dana Rohrabacher, Don
Manzullo* and a few others, we beat back this attempt. But we did it
because the American people called their congressmen and said,
\`\`Don\'t vote for the H.R. 1908 Steal American Technologies Act.\'\'
That is what they did before, and we won. We contacted our congressmen.

That is how we beat comprehensive immigration reform. We can beat this
bill, too, just like that. We can watch out for America if the PATRIOT
Act and we watch out for the little guy together, if all of us come
together and watch out for the little guy, all of our rights will be
protected. That is what America is all about.

I beg my fellow Members to pay attention to this vote. I beg the
American people to pay attention to this vote. There will be dramatic
changes in our life and the opportunity our children will face and the
safety of our country if we change this fundamental of our law.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.