[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 114 (Thursday, August 5, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                AMERICAN INVENTORS PROTECTION AT OF 1999

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                               speech of

                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 3, 1999

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to a bill that 
jeopardizes America's future prosperity by endangering the protection 
of our nation's independent inventors. HR 2654 seeks to extensively 
reform the patent process, which should only occur after deliberative 
discussion and with the opportunity for amendment. This bill will pass 
this body without even the courtesy of open debate. Such an important 
matter demands a thorough dialogue.
  Small inventors, like the industrious citizens of Eastern Long 
Island, provided sparks of inspiration that helped build this nation. 
The Constitution ensures that inventors have the exclusive right to the 
product of their efforts. The bill upon which HR 2654 is based would 
severely erode that protection. Without considered debate and extensive 
review of HR 2654, we have no idea whether it would be similarly 
harmful.
  Technology has driven America's latest economic boom. It is the 
foundation of the new economy as we move into the 21st Century. Bill 
Gates, Steve Jobs, and Raymond Damadian, the inventor of the MRI, were 
once independent inventors whose ideas have changed the face of society 
and how we view ourselves. Their creations were protected and have 
contributed to the prosperity America now enjoys. Tomorrow's inventors 
deserve the same treatment.
  Mr. Damadian, a valued constituent of mine, has written extensively 
on the issue of patent reform given his unique position as an 
independent inventor who has seen the impact of his ideas on the lives 
of his fellow citizens. In correspondence with our colleague, 
Representative Manzullo, he strenuously objected to passing this bill 
that could cost independent inventors a right protected by the U.S. 
Constitution. I would like to place that letter into the Congressional 
Record at this point.
  In more depth, he explored the problems with HR 2654's companion 
bill, S. 507, in a highly erudite letter to the Senate Majority Leader, 
Trent Lott. In that correspondence, he highlights the U.S. patent as 
``one of America's great blessings'' and clearly outlines the serious 
problems with that bill from removing the U.S. Patent Office from the 
purview of Congressional oversight to eroding cherished Constitutional 
guarantees.
  Mr. Speaker, as Mr. Damadian has written, Congress should not hastily 
pass laws that could have far-reaching impacts without and discussion. 
It is clear that we do not know what the effects of HR 2654 will be. We 
owe it to our independent inventors, and to our future, to be sure.

                                            Fonar Corporation,

                                     Melville, NY, August 3, 1999.
     Hon. Donald Manzullo,
     House of Representatives,
     Cannon HOB, Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Manzullo: It has come to my attention that 
     an effort is under foot to steal the U.S. Patent System in 
     what I consider an outrageous usurpation of power. the House 
     of Representatives intends to pass a bill, H.R. 2654, that 
     will void the constitutionally granted patent rights of 
     independent inventors everywhere.
       Remarkably it is doing so without even a written bill 
     informing the affected parties or even their Representatives 
     what the bill contains. Even more remarkably it is doing it 
     under a suspension of the rules, whose predicate is that 
     there is no opposition to the bill, when independent 
     inventors everywhere are BOILING over the prospect of losing 
     their constitutionally granted rights to a patent.
       Please be advised that Roberts Rines speaks only for 
     himself and not for the rest of us great masses of 
     independent inventors, whose rights are being taken away 
     without a hearing, without a vote, without a single sentence 
     of the bill to view and in the darkness of the night, a 
     villainy that will live in infamy!
           Sincerely yours,
                                                 Raymond Damadian,
     President and Chairman; Inductee, National Inventors Hall of 
                                                             Fame.

     

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