Dana Rohrabacher: “next week this House will have a chance to vote on H.R. 3460, the Moorhead-Schroeder Patent Act, which I believe should…”

“next week this House will have a chance to vote on H.R. 3460, the Moorhead-Schroeder Patent Act, which I believe should be entitled the ``Steal American Technologies Act.'' Members of the Committee on the Judiciary yesterday were given inaccurate answers to questions, and this bill passed right through that committee and will be heading toward this floor next week. The bill mandates, mandates that every patent application that is made to the United States Patent Office be published after 18 months, whether or not the patent has been issued. Do my colleagues understand what that means? That means every new idea our people come up with, whether or not they have been issued the patents, it will be published for the entire world to see. It is an invitation to steal every new American technological idea. It is an insane mandate, and it is in this bill. The bill also obliterates the Patent Office and resurrects it as a quasi-independent corporation, like the post office. Only with that, congressional oversight is limited and patent examiners are stripped of their right of civil service protection. It is an invitation to steal American technology. H.R. 3460 must be defeated.”