[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5925-H5926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 URGING MEMBERS TO SUPPORT H.R. 3460, TO PROTECT AMERICAN PATENT RIGHTS

  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, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona 
[Mr. Hayworth].


       correcting an Inaccurate quote Attributed to Mr. gingrich

  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from 
California, for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I think the gentlewoman from Connecticut and all those 
who heard her remarks would be interested in hearing the accurate quote 
she attributed to the Speaker of the House, not talking about the 
Medicare Program, but the Health Care Financing Administration. Here is 
the complete quote:


[[Page H5926]]


       You know, we tell Boris Yeltsin, get rid of centralized 
     command bureaucracies, go to the marketplace. Okay, what do 
     you think the Health Care Financing Administration is? It is 
     a centralized command bureaucracy. It is everything we are 
     telling Boris Yeltsin to get rid of. No, we don't get rid of 
     it in round one, because we don't think it is politically 
     smart, we don't think that is the right way to go through a 
     transition. But we believe it is going to wither on the vine 
     because we think seniors are voluntarily going to leave it, 
     voluntarily.

  Again, the record demonstrates, that refers to the Health Care 
Financing Administration, not to Medicare withering on the vine. That 
is the type of partisanship we should avoid in moving to solve this 
problem.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I would hope that we can discuss issues 
like that in a spirit of camaraderie, except I will have to note that 
when people misquote other people's positions, they can expect people 
to get upset about it. I will say that what I have heard personally 
over the last year is an attempt that I would believe that many 
Democrats are making to try to frighten the senior citizens of the 
United States by using misquotes, by trying to present to them the idea 
that the Republican Party has some idea of taking away their Social 
Security and taking away their Medicare. I would say I believe that 
this is an insult to the senior citizens, in particular, of our 
country, and I think our senior citizens are much more intelligent and 
will not fall for that type of tactic.
  Mr. Speaker, what I would like to speak about tonight with my 
remaining 3\1/2\ minutes is something that is a major threat to the 
well-being of every American. That is a battle that is going on that 
nobody even hears about.
  What is happening is we are now facing the most severe attack on 
America's patent system that we have ever had in the history of the 
United States. Foreigners and multinational corporations have 
insidiously targeted our patent system and are now, step by step, 
destroying the patent system of the United States, the patent system 
which has provided us the greatest source of new wealth creation of any 
nation in the history of mankind. This has been America's greatest 
asset, and people are attacking the system. It is being attacked, it is 
being dismantled, and it is one of the most insidious attacks I have 
ever seen as a Member of the Congress.
  The patent system was first changed in the GATT implementation 
legislation by a provision that was not required by GATT, but was snuck 
into the implementing legislation because we in Congress had to vote 
for the entire legislation or against it, and thus, they were sure they 
would get the vote for changing the patent system because they knew 
that we would not just totally abandon the world trading structure.
  What happened in that legislation, Mr. Speaker, was that the 
guaranteed 17 years of patent protection that Americans have had as a 
right for the last 130 years was taken away and was replaced by an 
uncertain time of 20 years. But that 20 years, if it takes you longer, 
the clock begins ticking when you file for a patent. Seventeen years of 
guaranteed patent protection meant if you filed for a patent, no matter 
how long it took after the time it took you to issue your patent, you 
would have 17 years of protection. Thus, inventors and investors put 
forth the time and effort needed to keep America ahead of the 
competition.
  If we replace that with a system of 20 years, where the clock starts 
ticking immediately, what that does is the clock is ticking against the 
inventor, and if it takes 15 years, 15 years for a patent to be issued, 
only 5 years of patent protection would remain. Basically our 
guaranteed patent term, the right to a guaranteed patent term, was 
eliminated for the American people, something that served us so well.
  The second step in this harmonization process, and what is happening 
is a process to harmonize American law with Japanese law, is actually a 
destruction of the Patent Office.
  H.R. 3460 is a bill that has already passed the subcommittee. This 
bill, which I call the Steal American Technology Act, would literally 
destroy the current Patent Office and corporatize it.
  Here is a conservative Republican, who usually likes privatization, 
telling you that this would be horrible. We must protect American 
patent rights and oppose 3460, which would destroy the Patent Office. 
We can do this in the time ahead by supporting H.R. 359, which is my 
substitute, to H.R. 3460.

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