Friday, April 22, 2011

Keep Your Hands Off The Patent Office

Assuming small entrepreneurial companies are ground zero for new ideas, innovation and job growth, and ultimately instrumental in the recovery and competitiveness of the U.S. economy on the global stage, why must Congress habitually steal the PTO’s resources and divert them for other purposes? In the last fifteen years Congress has divertedfor its own reasons nearly $1,000,000,000 in PTO fees, $100,000,000 in the last budgetary cycle alone. This from a job creating enginethat receives no taxpayer dollars and is the sole self-funded government agency, supported 100 percent by the patent fees of individual inventors, universities and creative companies.

Because the critics believe the patent system hopelessly broken, 15 large American technology companies have spearheaded a completely self-serving initiative to rewrite the patent laws, all in an effort to insulate themselves from the competitive threat posed by the very job engines upon which our economy and our standard of living are so dependent. The initiative is so self-serving, in fact that representatives for entrepreneurs and small business were not invited to participate at the March 30 Congressional hearings on patent reform.
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