Dana Rohrabacher: “Today, I rise to warn the American people that fundamental changes are being proposed in our legal system here in…”

“Today, I rise to warn the American people that fundamental changes are being proposed in our legal system here in Washington that could have a dramatic impact on their freedom, a dramatic impact on the prosperity of this country, and a dramatic impact on the security of our country. These changes that I am talking about are not so apparent to the average person because they deal with a very complicated issue of technology and technology ownership. I have been in Congress for about 25 years--actually 26 years at the end of this year. During that time period, there has been an ongoing fight that has not been recognized by many American people. It is the fight to maintain a very strong patent system in our country. It has been ongoing because major players around the world, especially multinational corporations, have not been supportive of the idea that the American people have a right to own their own creations. In fact, our Founding Fathers felt that this was so important that we have the patent rights and copyrights for the average American person that they wrote it into our Constitution. I just happen to have a copy of the Constitution here. Article I, section 8 says one of the powers of Congress is ``to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'' This is what our Founding Fathers wrote into the Constitution.…”