Lucille Roybal-Allard: “reclaiming my time, let me go on to talk about the importance of the office. There is a shortfall of funding for the…”

“reclaiming my time, let me go on to talk about the importance of the office. There is a shortfall of funding for the work that needs to be done, and that is a very real part of this debate. Increasing patent approval times, if in fact that approval time is threatened, that in and of itself can and will have a crippling effect on what we call the new economy. You cannot leave out of this debate what this new economy is producing for our Nation. The high technology and biotechnology sectors of our economy depend on prompt and high-quality patents and trademarks to protect their investments in research and development and new product production. Venture capital funding for start-up companies depend on timely patent protection and can dry up because patent times continue to soar. The result will be a bureaucratic bottleneck that chokes off the development of new breakthroughs of all kinds of things that every single Member of Congress hails and supports. While for some this may be a little known office, the PTO is the backbone of the new economy. Many Members have talked about other agencies, Commerce, what Chairman Greenspan relies upon statistically. I would like to suggest that those statistics will not be available for use if in fact these patents cannot be approved. We have to look at what is fueling and what is the backbone of this new economy. I know that the Coble amendment restores $134 million in user fees.…”