[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE STEAL AMERICAN TECHNOLOGIES ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr Rohrabacher] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, the House will soon vote on a bill 
concerning patent law in the United States of America, and that is a 
ho-hum of an issue for most people. In fact, it is one of those issues 
that people want to turn their radios off if it even comes on a local 
talk show to discuss, but the fact is this piece of legislation will 
make the difference as to whether or not America remains the leading 
economic power on this planet or whether or not our economic 
adversaries destroy us and destroy us as business competitors in a few 
short years ahead. It will also determine whether or not those people 
who are yawning at the other end of their radios saying should I listen 
to this or forget it, whether or not their families will have the 
standard of living that is higher than the standard of living of 
working people around the world.
  What has given America the edge has been our technological edge on 
the competition. This has been true throughout our history, and we are 
about to pass a bill that will dramatically change American patent law 
and permit America's economic adversaries to steal every one of our new 
innovative and technological ideas.
  H.R. 3460 has already passed out of subcommittee and committee. I 
have spoken to some of the members of that subcommittee who had no idea 
what was in the legislation that they passed.
  First of all, let us note that Patent Commissioner Bruce Lehman, our 
patent commissioner, several years ago went and made a hushed agreement 
with his counterpart in Japan, to do what? And we have a copy of that 
agreement. That agreement superimposes, says we will superimpose the 
Japanese patent system on the United States of America.
  So, my colleagues, we are about to change our patent law and make it 
exactly like the Japanese patent law, and of course we know the 
Japanese are so creative. What we do know about Japan is that they are 
not creative; they are improvers and perfecters, but they are not 
creators. All the new ideas that have come out of that country, and now 
they want to change our system to make it like Japan's. Also in Japan, 
of course, the huge special interests steal from the ordinary people 
any new idea that they have.

  Well, this hushed agreement was first implemented when they tried to 
sneak something into the GATT implementation legislation, and 
succeeded, which ended the guaranteed patent term for Americans, and 
again it is a ho-hum issue. Who could pay attention to little details 
to whether the patent term is guaranteed or whether it is an uncertain 
patent term?
  Well, step No. 2 in trying to make our patent system like Japan's is 
very easy to understand. It mandates that every American inventor who 
applies for a patent will be forced to see every detail of his 
invention published for the entire world, every Asian copycat, every 
economic adversary of the United States. Every enemy of the United 
States will have every one of our technological ideas before the patent 
is issued to the inventor. This does not make sense to anybody. Nobody 
says is that really happening?
  Do not turn off that radio dial, Mr. and Mrs. America. Listen to the 
details of what is going on, or we are going to find our children's 
future being robbed because H.R. 3460 should be called the Steal 
American Technologies Act. It mandates every one of our technological 
secrets to be published for the world to steal, which will eliminate 
America's technological edge and our ability to compete, and ultimately 
the standard of living of our people will decline, and that will not be 
ultimately 20 years from now, that will be ultimately 5 years from now.
  This bill also obliterates the Patent Office. The one thing that we 
have had, these civil servants at the Patent Office, these patent 
examiners who struggle to define what you own as a patent applicant as 
they issue your own patent, they are having basically their civil 
service protection ripped away. They are eliminating the Patent Office; 
literally they are obliterating. This is part of our Constitution, and 
they are going to resurrect it as what? Sort of an independent quasi, 
quasi-private corporation. This quasi-private corporation operation is 
going to have no board of directors. It is not a part of the 
legislation. Instead it creates a czar of patents who will be able to 
be appointed for 5 years but cannot be removed unless it is for cause, 
and that man, who is it going to be? The same guy who made the deal 
with the Japanese to eliminate our patent system.
  No; we need to save America's technology by voting against H.R. 3460 
and for the Rohrabacher substitute which would replace the bad parts of 
that bill. People need to talk to their Congress men and women, or the 
big corporations who are in favor of this change will have their way 
and the American people will lose our standard of living. People need 
to talk to their congressmen to support the Rohrabacher substitute to 
H.R. 3460, the Steal American Technologies Act.

                          ____________________