[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 28 (Thursday, March 6, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H790]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          UNITED STATES SHOULD PRESERVE A STRONG PATENT SYSTEM

  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, earlier in these 5-minute speech 
periods we heard from one of my colleagues, the gentleman from New York 
[Mr. Forbes], about a fight that Mr. Ray Damadian has gone through over 
these last 25 years in order to secure his right of ownership to a 
piece of technology that he invented. We are talking about the inventor 
of the MRI.
  This technology, which has saved thousands, perhaps even millions of 
lives over these last 25 years and permitted the medical profession to 
diagnose people without having to cut them open, as in the past, has 
been a tremendous boon to all of mankind. It, in fact, has been a major 
export item for the United States of America.
  The MRI was one of those great inventions, along with the airplane, 
along with the light bulb, along with so many other inventions that 
Americans are so proud came from the United States of America. And Ray 
Damadian, perhaps more than anybody that I know personally, reflects 
this type of creative genius for which Americans are so proud and this 
type of creative genius that had meant everything to our standard of 
living and improved the well-being of people all over the world in the 
process.
  As my colleague Mr. Forbes stated, Mr. Damadian has been in a 25-year 
fight to maintain his patent rights. Twenty-five years he has fought 
against this huge corporation, General Electric, for the rights of 
ownership of his own creative genius.
  Why this is important is because Mr. Damadian was protected by a 
relatively strong patent law and a strong patent system. In fact, the 
United States has had the strongest patent protection of any Nation in 
the world. This is what has given us the edge on all our other 
competitors around the world. This is what has made America safe and 
secure. This is what has given the average person in America an 
opportunity and a standard of living that is basically sought after by 
people from all over the planet. It has been our technology and our 
freedom. And the American patent system is what has created this 
impulse, this momentum for the creating of technology.
  Our patent system is under attack now. The Ray Damadians in the 
future, if we permit H.R. 400, a bill that is going through Congress as 
we speak, if H.R. 400 passes, the Ray Damadians of the world will be 
chewed up and spit out by the huge corporations, just like his 
counterparts in Japan and other countries are beaten down by the 
economic shoguns of their society.
  What is happening is there is an attempt, and hold on to your horses 
here, folks, you may not have heard this before, what is happening is 
there is a move to make American patent law, which has been the 
strongest in the world, to be exactly a mirror image of the law in 
Japan, and they are not bringing up the Japanese standards to the 
protection our people have been afforded. They are bringing down the 
protections that have been offered to Americans.
  In 20 years this will mean the United States will no longer be the 
technological leader of the world. The standards of our people will be 
under attack, and they will never know what hit them because they 
changed the fundamental laws.
  It is happening very quietly here, and the multinational 
organizations have hired the best lobbyists in town to come here and 
influence Congress and unless the American people let their feelings be 
known, H.R. 400, the Steal American Technologies Act, will pass, and 
the Ray Damadians of the world, the men who create the technology that 
changes our way of life, will find themselves vulnerable and pretty 
soon we will not be seeing the MRI's being invented, pretty soon we 
will not see the technology of the Wright brothers. In fact, the Wright 
brothers will end up vulnerable to the Mitsubishis of the world.
  If that would have been the practice back at the turn of the century, 
the aerospace industry could have well been developed in Japan instead 
of the United States and the American people would never have known 
what hit them. We have to stand up for the United States of America and 
stand up for the fact that we need to be the technological leaders of 
the world.
  H.R. 400, believe it or not, mandates that every person who applies 
for a patent in the United States, after 18 months, whether or not that 
patent has been granted, it is going to be published for the entire 
world to see. Every thief, every copycat, every economic adversary, 
every country that hates us and wants to destroy the American way of 
life will have the advantage of being in possession of all of our 
technological secrets even before the patent has been issued.
  In Ray Damadian's case that means General Electric would actually 
have had his information before the patent was issued to Ray and, for 
sure, he would not have been able to defend himself.
  We will cease to be a great power. Our people will cease to have the 
standard of living if we cease to be the technological leader of the 
world. H.R. 400, the Steal American Technologies Act, will make us 
incredibly vulnerable to our economic adversaries. And, by the way, it 
also obliterates the Patent Office in the U.S. Government. It will take 
away the Patent Office, which was established by our Constitution, and 
replace it with a corporatized entity, and who knows what kind of 
influences will be on the patent examiners when they are now in a 
corporatized job rather than a Government job.
  Our patent examiners have worked hard. They have been part of our 
system but they have been protected by civil service and other 
protections and the knowledge that they were Government employees. The 
fact is that will not be the same if we make it a corporatized entity.
  H.R. 811 and 812 will fight against H.R. 400 and protect the American 
patent system. I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 811 and 812 and to 
oppose the Steal American Technologies Act, H.R. 400.

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