You may also take the letter, append your signature and mail it to President Clinton. You may also wish to contact Paul Heckel as suggested below. As proposed, this portion of the implementing legislation would, without debate before Congress, change the historical patent term from 17 years from the date of issuance to 20 years from the date of filing, a significant change in American patent law. The letter was sent to the President by the Intellectual Property Creators, a coalition that includes the United Inventors Association of the USA, the American College of Physician Inventors, The Inventors Voice, the National Congress of Inventors Organizations and Donald Banner, who was Patent Commissioner under President Jimmy Carter. The GATT implementing legislation is presently in Congressional committee and is expected to be ready for voting by August 1, 1994.
Time is of the essence.
A copy of the Open Letter to President Clinton, along with the signers and some of their inventions follows. Most of us are not only inventors but technology entrepreneurs. We share your concerns about the growth of the U.S. economy and your vision for America's continued greatness, but we are concerned about unnecessary changes being proposed to the patent laws in the GATT enabling legislation. The U.S. patent system was established in the Constitution by our founding fathers. It has made the U.S. the world leader, not just in pioneering new product concepts and technologies, but bringing them to market.