[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           PATENT PROTECTION

  (Mr. ROHRABACHER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, next week this House will have a chance 
to vote on H.R. 3460, the Moorhead-Schroeder Patent Act, which I 
believe should be entitled the ``Steal American Technologies Act.''
  Members of the Committee on the Judiciary yesterday were given 
inaccurate answers to questions, and this bill passed right through 
that committee and will be heading toward this floor next week.
  The bill mandates, mandates that every patent application that is 
made to the United States Patent Office be published after 18 months, 
whether or not the patent has been issued. Do my colleagues understand 
what that means? That means every new idea our people come up with, 
whether or not they have been issued the patents, it will be published 
for the entire world to see. It is an invitation to steal every new 
American technological idea. It is an insane mandate, and it is in this 
bill.
  The bill also obliterates the Patent Office and resurrects it as a 
quasi-independent corporation, like the post office. Only with that, 
congressional oversight is limited and patent examiners are stripped of 
their right of civil service protection.
  It is an invitation to steal American technology. H.R. 3460 must be 
defeated.

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