[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 57 (Tuesday, March 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3813-H3814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PATENT PROBLEMS WITH GATT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr.  Rohrabacher] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to draw public 
attention to a great miscarriage of justice that will happen to 
American citizens starting June 8 unless the Congress acts now.
  Most people do not understand the importance of patent rights for the 
American people, but let me be concise and just say that as we are 
entering this information age and this new era of technology unless we 
guarantee the protection for the creativity and genius of the American 
people and for the investment of American investors in new technology, 
America will fall behind.
  Mr. Speaker, in the past, America has always led the way economically 
because we protected people's property rights, including their 
intellectual property rights. In fact, most people do not know the U.S. 
Constitution includes a strong provision about patent rights. So from 
the very beginning our Founding Fathers, like Thomas Jefferson and 
Benjamin Franklin,
 who were themselves innovators and technicians, ensured that our 
country would place a great deal of value on the protection of new 
inventions and intellectual property rights.

  In fact, for 150 years the tradition has been that American citizens 
would have 17 years of protection in which they would own any new 
technology that they invented. Well, that is what has happened for 150 
years.
  Unfortunately, last year during the GATT process, during our 
negotiations with other powerful interests around the world, a 
provision was snuck into the GATT implementation legislation that was 
not mandated by the GATT treaty itself. Let me repeat that. Something 
was put into the legislation for the GATT which is about an 
international trade agreement that was not required by what we had 
agreed to with those other trading partners to be in the GATT 
legislation.
  [[Page H3814]] What that provision was, was something that reduced 
the number of years of patent protection for American citizens. Today, 
we have 17 years of protection, as we have had for 150 years. If one 
files a patent, no matter how long it takes that person to be issued a 
patent, that means when a patent is finally issued the investors will 
have 17 years to recoup.
  The change that was snuck into GATT says that once someone files for 
a patent the clock starts ticking, and he only has 20 years. No matter 
how long it takes for that patent to be issued, after 20 years that 
person no longer owns that technology.
  Mr. Speaker, do you know what that means? That means that our most 
innovative Americans who created new technologies will see that their 
patent rights are reduced dramatically, the people producing new 
technology.
  What was snuck into the GATT language over my strenuous objection and 
many others was this law that will mean billions of dollars that would 
be coming to Americans who invent new technologies now will stay in the 
corporate bank accounts of multinational corporations and Japanese 
corporations. Billions and billions of dollars that used to come to 
Americans are now being kept overseas. Our people were betrayed. Their 
rights were reduced.
  Now, if you ask our Patent Office why that happened, why did they 
sneak that in there, why did they keep Congressman like myself in the 
dark until 10 days before GATT was actually put before this body and 
wouldn't tell us what was in there concerning patent rights? Well, we 
have got to do something to correct the patent system because they have 
something called the submarine patent in which some patent holders, 
some people who have applied for patents, maneuver through the system 
and actually have a longer period than the 17 years of protection 
because they manage to have the patent not issued.
  The submarine patent problem can be corrected administratively and 
should have been. It is like a hangnail on your toe. An infected tow 
with a hangnail feels really bad, but the last thing you want to do 
when you have a hangnail is to cut your foot off.
  Instead of correcting the hangnail problem, what our leaders have 
done is use a hangnail as an excuse to cut the feet off of the American 
investor. When that happens, we are not going to be moving forward. We 
are not going to be able to compete because we are not going to be able 
to outrun the foreign competition. Mr. Speaker, what will happen when 
this change takes effect is that American inventors will lose control 
of their technology after a few short years.
  I am asking my Members and my colleagues, my friends here in the 
house, to join me in sponsoring H.R. 359 which will restore to the 
American people a guaranteed 17 years of protection. We can then move 
forward to correct some of the problems at the Patent Office. We can do 
so administratively and without costing the American people billions of 
dollars.
  Let us protect American intellectual property rights and join me on 
H.R. 359.


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