[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 20, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 IMPORTANT DETAILS IN GATT LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, the reason I am here today is to plead 
my case to my fellow colleagues to please pay attention to the details 
that are within the GATT implementation legislation. As somebody once 
said, ``The devil is in the details,'' but what 90 percent of us in 
this body do not realize is what is contained in the massive GATT 
implementation legislation, and in that legislation are provisions that 
will dramatically reduce the patent protection now enjoyed by 
Americans.

                              {time}  1740

  Proponents of this devastating provision have dressed it up by 
calling it patent harmonization. It is one of the most malicious 
attacks on the ownership rights of Americans to be put forth before 
this body in decades. The people who have slipped this GATT ripoff, 
this ripoff of GATT legislation, the ripoff of patent rights, into the 
legislation, are counting on the ignorance of the Members of this body. 
In 1968, and in subsequent years, the proponents, that is, the Japanese 
and other multinational interests have sought to use separate 
legislation for this very same patent harmonization. Wisely, the 
Congress has defeated it every time it has seen the full light of day. 
These powerful interests now realize they cannot get their way in a 
direct battle, so they are seeking to achieve their ends through 
subterfuge, by using a major trade bill as a vehicle to fundamentally 
alter our patent system and in the process grab billions of dollars of 
royalties that should be going to creative and innovative Americans.
  Understand that this attack on our patent rights is coming from 
technological users, not creators. Americans who create the technology 
that makes our lives better are now under attack by the big guys, huge 
Japanese and multinational corporations that will be making bigger 
profits and will be paying dramatically less in patent royalties to do 
so.
  There are several big lies that have permitted this proposal, this 
ripoff, to get as far as it has.
  Lie No. 1. The changes are hidden in the GATT implementation 
legislation and that legislation was kept from us until the very last 
minute. One of the reasons very few Members of this Congress realize 
there was a dramatic reduction in the patent protection Americans now 
enjoy in the GATT implementation legislation is we were not even 
permitted to see the legislation until just a few weeks ago, and many 
Members still have not been permitted to see the legislation. That is 
the No. 1 big lie, it is just keeping us in the dark.
  Big lie No. 2. It is claimed that the massive changes in our patent 
laws that are part of the GATT implementation legislation are necessary 
because they are part of the GATT Treaty. This is big lie No. 2. What 
we have in the GATT implementation legislation that affects the length 
of the term of patent protection for Americans is not mandated by the 
GATT Treaty itself. What we have here is a special interest who has 
snuck this provision into the GATT implementation legislation trying to 
fool us, lie to us, and tell us that, well, we have to do this or the 
whole world trading system is going to break down. That is a lie, it is 
not mandated by GATT.
  No. 3, the third big lie. It is the most arrogant lie of all. That 
the patent term as suggested by this change in the GATT implementation 
language is longer for 95 percent of all the patents that go through 
the system, 95 percent of the inventors are actually going to have 
their term lengthened. It all comes down to this, ladies and gentlemen. 
What is being proposed is a change in the language that says that a 
person who files for a patent today in the United States, he is granted 
17 years of protection from the time his patent is issued, no matter 
how long it takes during the process time from the time he files. What 
they are proposing in the GATT implementation legislation is changing 
that to say he has 20 years of protection from the time he files. But 
the clock starts ticking.
  Almost every major invention that has changed the way we live for the 
better has taken years, up to 10 to 15 years to get through the patent 
process, and under the current law, the inventors have had 17 years' 
worth of protection. Under what they are trying to do through GATT, it 
would reduce it to 5 years, to 3 years and sometimes eliminate it 
altogether. This third lie, this idea that they are actually extending 
the patent protection, is the worst lie of all.

  The fact is that if we permit the patent protection time to be 
diminished by the GATT implementation legislation going through as it 
is, we will find that research and development money for private 
development in this country will dry up. It will destroy America's 
edge. It will cause billions of dollars that should be going to 
American inventors as royalties to be left in the hands of Japanese 
corporations who will use it to destroy us economically.
  I ask all of my colleagues to join me in demanding that this be taken 
out of the GATT Treaty.

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