American Innovators for Patent Reform Strongly Condemns Passage of H.R. 3309
American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR), an industry group representing small patent owners, strongly condemns passage of H.R. 3309, the "Invention Act," because it is the most anti-innovation, anti-inventor legislation in American history.
Online, December 6, 2013 (Newswire.com) - American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR), an industry group representing small patent owners - start-ups, R&D companies, universities and independent inventors - as well as patent practitioners, strongly condemns the passage of H.R. 3309, the so-called "Innovation Act," by the House of Representatives as the most anti-innovation and anti-inventor legislation in U.S. history!
"Our Founding Fathers had the wisdom to lay the foundation for an American patent system in the U.S. Constitution," observes Dr. Alexander Poltorak, founder and President of AIPR. "Today's lawmakers had the 'wisdom' to erode that foundation!"
Under the guise of curbing litigation abuse by so-called "patent trolls," H.R. 3309 is a free get-out-of-jail-card for corporate infringers. In fact, corporate lobbyists crafted this bill with no input from inventors, universities, patent practitioners or anyone else in the innovation community.
"This bill was rushed through the house without debate or deliberation, and without any input from the inventors' community. It was shepherded through the corridors of Capitol Hill by high-paid lobbyists for 'Infringers Incorporated,'" claims Dr. Poltorak. He concludes: "American democracy - the best democracy your money can buy!"
The centerpiece of this legislation is the fee-shifting provision requiring that the losing party pay the prevailing party's legal fees and expenses. To penalize inventors and small patent owners for attempting in good faith to enforce their patent rights is nothing short of closing the court doors in their faces.
"The fee-shifting provision of this bill is a shameless attempt to intimidate inventors and small patent owners - the true American innovators - into submission," says Dr. Poltorak. "It is thoroughly un-American and flies in the face of our tradition of equal access to justice for all."
The purpose of the Innovation Act is very clear: To make it easier for the large, high-tech corporations to infringe patents owned by universities, independent inventors, R&D companies and other small patent owners, and to make it more difficult for them to enforce their intellectual property rights.
"The result of H.R. 3309, should a similar bill pass in the Senate and be signed into law, will be to weaken and devalue U.S. Patents," predicts Alec Schibanoff, Executive Director of AIPR. "That means fewer innovators will be able to secure the financing needed to commercialize their new technologies, and that will result in fewer new business start-ups and, ultimately, fewer new jobs. With passage of this bill by the House of Representatives," Schibanoff adds, "AIRP will now take its fight to the U.S. Senate."
What the U.S. Patent system really needs, but Congress lacks the will to do, is to provide full funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
"Patents are the currency of today's knowledge-based economy," according to Dr. Poltorak. "Devaluing this currency, which will be the inevitable result if this bill becomes the law, will stifle innovation and cost American jobs."
American Innovators for Patent Reform calls on every engineer, researcher and inventor, on every U.S,. citizen who values American innovation, to write to his or her U.S. Senators, urging them to stop eroding our patent system and to pass a real patent reform bill that establishes full funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
About American Innovators for Patent Reform
Headquartered in New York City, American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR) represents a broad constituency of American innovators and innovation stakeholders, including inventors, engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs, patent owners, small businesses, universities, investors, and intellectual property professionals such as patent attorneys, patent agents, tech transfer managers and licensing executives.
AIPR opposes any patent legislation that makes it more difficult to enforce patents because such legislation ultimately weakens the U.S. Patent system and decreases the value of patents. AIPR advocates patent reform that creates a multi-tier patent system, strengthens U.S. patents, and provides full funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
For more information about AIPR, please visit www.aminn.org.