Dana Rohrabacher: “the day has finally come, and I rise in support of the rule and in opposition to H.R. 400. I know a lot of people may…”

“the day has finally come, and I rise in support of the rule and in opposition to H.R. 400. I know a lot of people may vote in favor of my substitute to H.R. 400 just to shut me up and to keep me from giving all these special orders all the time, but the day has finally come when we will have a head-to-head discussion on the issue of what the patent law of the United States of America should be, and as I have pointed out on numerous occasions over the last few months, that the bill that was being crafted and, yes, the bill that finally went through the system is taking America in exactly the wrong direction. Mr. Speaker, the United States of America has had essentially the same patent protections, the strongest patent system in the world up until this date, and if this vote passes today on H.R. 400, America's patent system will be gutted, that is gutted, and we will hear during this debate that they are doing it simply to get out a thing called the submarine patent. Let me note this: That is very similar by saying the only way we are going to be able to handle Hustler magazine is to destroy all freedom of speech in the United States or the equivalent of saying, ``You have a hangnail that might be infected, and the only way to cure it is to cut off your leg,'' and that is not the case. The Congressional Research Service states that my substitute bill to H.R. 400 will eliminate the practice of submarine patenting.”