[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H595-H596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SLOW-MOTION PEARL HARBOR ON AMERICA'S WELL-BEING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Chambliss) Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, l997, the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Rohrabacher] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, Congress this year will pass 
legislation that will determine the technological status of the United 
States of America in the 21st century.
  Let us put this in perspective. America has had the most productive 
work force and provided a higher standard of living for the average 
person and met every challenge to our national security and our 
economic prosperity. Why? Because we were technologically superior. 
That is what gave us the edge; we were technologically superior. Why 
were we technologically superior? We were technologically superior 
because we have the strongest patent system in the world. It did not 
just happen that we had this American miracle, that our standard of 
living here increased, that the average person had opportunities never 
dreamed of in other countries. It happened because we were producing 
the wealth because we had the technology, because written into our law, 
into the very Constitution of the United States, is patent protection 
as a right of the American people. We traditionally have had the 
strongest patent protection of any country of the world.
  Well, now, unbeknownst to most Americans, our patent system, the one 
that has kept our country No. 1, is being destroyed, and the patent 
rights of the American people are being greatly diminished, this in a 
very low-key effort that very few Americans know about. In fact most 
Members of Congress know nothing about this.
  I have documents detailing why this has happened, because you may say 
why would anyone want to destroy the very basic patent system that has 
been so important to the United States of America? I have a document 
that I will put into the Congressional Record detailing an agreement 
between Mr. Bruce Lehman, the head of our Patent Office, and his 
counterpart in Japan to harmonize American patent law with that of 
Japan's; and I hate to tell you, but we are not bringing up their weak 
patent system to become strong like the patent protection in America. 
Their harmonization process is weakening the rights of the American 
people, so it will be the same as the Japanese.
  This is an absolute catastrophe in the making, a slow-motion Pearl 
Harbor on America's well-being.
  This agreement to harmonize patent law between the United States and 
Japan by making our patent law weaker will do nothing but destroy 
America's leadership in the years ahead, and again at a very slow pace, 
so that future Americans will never know what hit them.
  H.R. 400 is the legislation aimed at implementing this hoard 
agreement with the Japanese. I call it the Steal American Technologies 
Act. Among other things, it reconfirms that the guaranteed patent term, 
which we have always had, no matter how long it took you to get your 
patent issued, you knew you were guaranteed 17 years of patent 
protection. That is out the window; that is gone. It reconfirms that.
  It also mandates--now get this--all American patents, if you make an 
application, even before those patent applications are issued--so 
someone does not have a patent yet, it is going to be published for the 
whole world to see after 18 months. So inventors will have every secret 
that they have got, all the work they put into building new 
technologies will be given to America's competitors to beat us 
economically.
  And of course the third part of H.R. 400, the Steal American 
Technologies Act, would be eliminating the Patent Office, just 
obliterating it. That is right; we are going to obliterate the patent 
system, as we have got it, and we have had it since the founding of our 
country, and we are going to restructure it as a corporatized entity. A 
corporatized entity? Who is in charge? These people at the Patent 
Office, these diligent patent examiners trying their best to do a 
diligent job because they know their decision means billions of dollars 
in jobs for America, they are going to be turned over. They are now 
going to be employees of a corporatized structure and who is going to 
be in charge of that? Lord only knows.
  H.R. 400 is an abomination. It has to be defeated. But the American 
people know little about it. Yet the lobbyists and the power structure 
in this town are pushing this bill through. There will be a hearing 
tomorrow on it in the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property 
of the Committee on the Judiciary.
  H.R. 400, the Steal American Technologies Act, will be defeated or it 
will destroy the well-being of the American people. I am dropping 
legislation today which will take us in exactly the opposite direction. 
It guarantees the patent term that has been part of our rights since 
our country was founded. It brings back the right of confidentiality. 
We are not going to give up and publish everything after 18 months so 
the thieves in the world will steal all of our new ideas
  No, it remains confidential, the way it has always been confidential 
since our country's founding. We have a right of confidentiality, if 
you have a new idea, until you are granted that patent.
  And No. 3, my bill will bolster and strengthen and make more 
efficient the current patent system.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting my legislation, and I 
ask that they oppose the Steal American Technologies Act, H.R. 400.
  The document I referred to is as follows:

Mutual Understanding Between the Japanese Patent Office and the United 
          States Patent and Trademark Office, January 20, 1994

       Actions to be taken by Japan:
       1. By July 1, 1995, the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) will 
     permit foreign nationals to file patent applications in the 
     English language, with a translation into Japanese to follow 
     within two months.
       2. Prior to the grant of a patent, the JPO will permit the 
     correction of translation errors up to the time allowed for 
     the reply to the first substantive communication from the 
     JPO.
       3. After the grant of a patent, the JPO will permit the 
     correction of translation errors to the extent that the 
     correction does not substantially extend the scope of 
     protection.
       4. Appropriate fees may be charged by the JPO for the above 
     procedures.
       Actions to be taken by the U.S.:
       1. By June 1, 1994, the United States Patent and Trademark 
     Office (USPTO) will introduce legislation to amend U.S. 
     patent law to change the term of patents from 17 years from 
     the date of grant of a patent for an invention to 20 years 
     from the date of filing of the first complete application.,
       2. The legislation that the USPTO will introduce shall take 
     effect six months from the date of enactment and shall apply 
     to all applications filed in the United States thereafter.
       3. Paragraph 2 requires that the term of all continuing 
     applications (continuations, continuations-in-part and 
     divisionals), filed six months after enactment of the above 
     legislation, be counted from the filing date of the earliest-
     filed of any applications invoked under 35 U.S.C. 120.
     Wataru Asou,
       Commissioner, Japanese Patent Office.
     Bruce A. Lehman,
       Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of 
     Patents.

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