If you want to see trade deficits soar, weaken U.S. patents. In 1994, Japan persuaded the Department of Commerce to seek certain changes, among them previous user rights, incorporated in the current legislation, and a change in the term of the patent, which was completed two years ago. Japan is not famed for its quest to improve the ability of the United States to compete. Proponents of the legislation contend that the United States is out of step with the world. They don't mention that America has more than 35 times the number of Nobel laureates in the sciences as Japan does.
Law reflects culture.
Japan's business culture, including its patent system, is woven around conglomerates well-practiced in suppressing potential competitors. Technical innovation goes nowhere except under terms dictated by the large companies. AT stake is nothing less than how we order our economic and business culture, and how that culture, in turn, defines us. The cumulative effect of the legislation is to threaten the delicate parity between large and small that is the heart of our patent system. Dr. Raymond Damadian, who revolutionized medicine and industry with magnetic resonance imaging, says that his company, Fonar Corp., probably would not exist if current proposals were in effect when he began.