[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 8943]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  OPPOSING THE AMERICAN INNOVATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to alert my 
colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, and I would like to alert the 
American people that there is a monstrous piece of legislation that 
will do great damage to our country and to the welfare of the American 
people making its way through the Judiciary Committee.
  In fact, the Judiciary Committee will have a markup this Thursday of 
what is called the American Innovation Act, H.R. 9. This, in reality, 
is the anti-innovation act. It is one of the most egregious examples of 
crony capitalism that I have witnessed in this body as I have been here 
for the last 26 years.
  This legislation uses a legitimate problem, which is frivolous 
lawsuits, and then portends to solve that problem by dramatically 
restricting the right of all Americans to sue in order to address those 
who have violated their rights in the name of usurping those who have 
been called patent trolls. A patent troll is someone who has purchased 
the right for a patent from an inventor and now has that property right 
himself. In the name of restricting those patent trolls from enforcing 
the right that they have bought from the inventor, they are 
dramatically restricting those people, both the inventors and anyone 
else who owns these intellectual property rights known as patents.
  Early provisions of this bill, and almost every provision of this 
bill, make it more difficult for the inventor to protect himself 
against the theft of huge corporations. And there you go; huge, 
multinational corporations are seeking to destroy America's patent 
system.
  I have been fighting this for 25 years. They have been fighting it 
because they want to take the property of American inventors, and they 
don't want to pay for it--surprise, surprise. So they passed 
legislation in the name of stopping frivolous lawsuits that prevent 
people with legitimate lawsuits from actually obtaining the justice 
they deserve. This will undercut American innovation. It will destroy 
the individual inventors.
  Almost every American university now has come out opposed to this 
because they have found that the result of this bill, by restricting 
the people's right to actually defend their own intellectual property 
rights, will undermine the value--dramatically decrease the value--of 
patents, which will mean people won't invest in patents, which means 
the universities now have less resources. Who will benefit? Large 
corporations, multinational corporations with no loyalty to the United 
States will then have the power to take from our inventors their 
inventions.
  This is a game changer for American innovation. It is the anti-
innovation act. I ask my colleagues to please pay attention to H.R. 9. 
Don't let them push this over. Don't let this crony capitalism being 
done using a decoy, meaning the patent trolls, get away from the fact 
that they are actually trying to destroy the system for legitimate 
inventors.
  As I say, I have been fighting this for 25 years. We have seen this 
in many forms. The last time, the decoy was submarine patentors. This 
time it is patent trolls.
  The fact is that none of this is an excuse to dramatically decrease 
the ability of our inventors to own what the Constitution gives them: a 
15- to 17-year period where they own what they invented; thus, they can 
make a profit from it. This would have destroyed all of the young 
inventors that made such a difference in the American way of life.
  We will not be prosperous and we will not be secure unless the 
American people have the right to the own their intellectual property, 
unless the inventors that are the basis of many of our new industries 
know that they will control their patent and that some big corporation 
won't just come along and steal it.
  This goes so far as to limit and to say that, for example, one of the 
provisions in the bill, if an inventor sues a major company that has 
stolen his or her patent, well, not only now will the inventor be 
liable for the costs of the litigation, but anybody who has invested in 
his patent will then be liable for those court costs. Who the heck will 
ever invest in an inventor when he is up against a megacorporation? No, 
we should not be permitting the theft of the intellectual property 
rights of our inventors.
  I would ask my colleagues to pay attention to H.R. 9. I would ask the 
American people to get ahold of your Congressman and make sure he 
understands how heinous this bill is that has already, as I say, been 
opposed by every major university in this country and, of course, every 
group of inventors in this country.
  If it was the Innovation Act, as the title would suggest, why would 
the inventors be against it?
  I would ask my colleagues to join me in opposing H.R. 9 as it is 
marked up in the Judiciary Committee this coming Thursday.

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