Dana Rohrabacher: “over the last 3 years, I have been involved in organizing support behind the right of the American people to maintain…”

“over the last 3 years, I have been involved in organizing support behind the right of the American people to maintain the legal level of protection that had been their right as American citizens since the founding of our country over 200 years ago. In this particular case, what is being diminished is the American people's rights to own their own creations. What is being diminished is the patent protection that Americans have had since the writing of our Constitution. Three years ago I did not know anything about this issue. I knew absolutely nothing about patent rights. It was brought to my attention that in the GATT implementation legislation that was being brought before Congress there was a provision that would dramatically change patent law in the United States of America. I could not believe this was happening, because changes in our patent law were not required by the GATT implementation legislation. We had been promised by the administration that the only thing that would be put into the GATT implementation legislation that went before Congress to implement the GATT agreement would be those items that were specifically required by the GATT negotiations.”