Political Quotes

“I know the bill has contained these provisions for some time now, and I acknowledge I have voted for different versions of it that contain these provisions. However, I have heard more and more in the past 2 years from small inventors, startup companies, small businesses, venture capitalists, and, yes, even large companies from all around our country, but especially in my State of California, that this proposed transition from our first-to-invent system to a first-to- file system would be severely harmful to innovation, and especially burdensome on small inventors, startups, and small businesses. And I have become convinced it is the wrong thing to do. For the benefit of my colleagues who have not been so embroiled in this rather technical issue, let me provide a little background. For over a century, our country has awarded patents to the first inventor to come up with an idea, even if somebody else beat them to the Patent Office--a first-to-invent system. And we have done very well under the first-to-invent system. This bill would change that, so that the first person to file an application for a patent for a particular invention would be entitled to that patent, even if another person actually created the invention first. This is what is known as the first-to-file system. Now, the argument that is made for transitioning to first-to-file is that the rest of the world follows first-to-file, and that will harmonize our system with theirs.…”