Dana Rohrabacher: “We knew we would hear a lot of talk about submarine patenting because there has to be some excuse that people would use…”

“We knew we would hear a lot of talk about submarine patenting because there has to be some excuse that people would use in order to justify gutting the American patent system that has been in place for 225 years, there has to be some excuse for these fundamental changes. What we got is what is called in debate school as the scarecrow argument. We just create a scarecrow there and we fill it full of hay and we claim that that is a real big threat. Submarine patents, there is some problem. It is a minor problem I believe. The opposition claims it is a major problem. In fact, however, my colleagues have not used one example of any submarine patent since the late 1970's. And I might add, in the 1970's, there was a system established in the Patent Office called the palm system; and it was established specifically to prevent people from delaying their patent intentionally, in other words, to deal with the submarine patent system issue. Since that time there has not been any example, and that has been instituted already, there has not been one example of any submarine patent since the palm system was instituted in the Patent Office.”