[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 42 (Thursday, April 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1413-H1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PROTECT AMERICA'S 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, the last spokesman, one of our 
colleagues, the gentleman from Florida, [Mr. Scarborough] just 
mentioned protecting the genius of the United States of America. Well, 
next week the House, this House, the body of the House of 
Representatives, will vote on a bill that will determine America's 
basic law on technology for the 21st century.
  In a quiet, almost stealth maneuver, major multinational corporations 
are trying to slide through this Congress legislation which will gut 
America's patent system. My colleagues heard me correctly. It will gut 
America's patent system.
  America has had the strongest patent system in the world. That is why 
we have the strongest economy of the world and our people have enjoyed 
opportunities and freedom like no other people in the world. And it is 
now under attack. America has had this strong patent protection in 
place since the founding of our country. It is in our Constitution.
  If this dismantling of America's patent protection proceeds, it will 
lead to an historic rip-off of America's technology. I say historic 
because it will lead to an end of America's preeminence in the arena of 
technology. And it has been this arena, as I say, that has secured us 
from foreign threats and permitted us the economic advancements that 
have given our people the strongest standard of living and the highest 
standard of living of any country of the world because our people, not 
just the elite, enjoy opportunity and freedom in America.
  If they gut our patent system, it will destroy our ability to compete 
with those countries that have cheap labor because we now will be 
stripped of our technological advantage. It will also strip our 
defenders of their technological advantage.
  This bill, H.R. 400, which I call the Steal American Technology Act, 
will be voted on in this body next week, but probably half of our 
Members do not even know it is coming up or know anything about it, yet 
they are being contacted by lobbyists. And unless the American people 
step forward and contact their Member of Congress and say vote against 
the H.R. 400, the Steal American Technologies Act, lobbyists from 
multinational corporations will have the say on the passage of this 
bill which will gut our patent system.
  What does H.R. 400 do? It mandates, and hold on to your seat here, it 
mandates that every patent application, every inventor who applies for 
a patent, will have his patent published for the entire world to see 
even before the patent is issued. This means that every enemy of the 
United States, every competitor of our country, every Japanese and 
Chinese copycat will have every one of our technological secrets and be 
able to use it against us before our patents are issued to our own 
industries and our own inventors.
  It also mandates a reexamination. It opens up the book to many 
different avenues that foreign corporations can challenge existing 
patents. Even those who own existing patents will be challenged.
  Finally, it eliminates the Patent Office as part of our Government 
and resurrects it as a corporate entity. We have had a Patent Office as 
part of our Government since the founding of our country. Now they want 
to corporatize it, turn it into a corporation that will be able to 
receive gifts from other countries and other foreign and multinational 
corporations.

                              {time}  1245

  Our patent examiners have worked so hard. So hard. There has never 
been a scandal among our patent examiners. Now by corporatizing the 
Patent Office, we are opening them up to all kinds of who knows what 
influences. These are people who make decisions that are worth billions 
and billions of dollars. They now will be opened up to outside 
influences.
  This bill, H.R. 400, is a catastrophe. It will have a dramatic impact 
on our standard of living. I call it a Pearl Harbor in slow motion. 
This bill will be

[[Page H1414]]

voted on next week unless people contact their representative. Many 
people will come here and vote and the only contact they will have had 
is with the lobbyists that are paid for by multinational corporations. 
Luckily, the leadership has provided us an alternative. I have two 
pieces of legislation, H.R. 811 and 812, which will be offered on the 
floor as a substitute, and I would ask my colleagues to vote for my 
substitute which will be presented, my substitute, the Rohrabacher 
substitute, to H.R. 400, the Steal American Technologies Act.
  If this bill passes, H.R. 400, we can imagine that American inventors 
will be left open to the greatest theft of our technology in the 
history of our country. It will impact our standard of living. I am 
sounding the alarm bell and I hope my colleagues and the people of the 
United States are listening. We can defeat it but only if Americans act 
together.

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