Christopher Coons

With this relatively modest funding, Administrator Power, you are being asked to confront an historic confluence of complex global challenges.

We need to change the narrative about American intellectual property but we also need to change the trajectory, coordination, enforcement, and taking the initiative.

I'm concerned that a country like China that has a coordinated, focused, nationally funded IP strategy can exploit the fact that there's no standing requirement in inter partes review in PTAB to swamp it, with basically unlimited resources.

Yes, I would encourage a standing requirement.

Finding some way to impose sustained costs on the beneficiaries of IP theft is something I suspect all of you would recommend.

I've worked on the SECRETS Act with Senator Cornyn, to help prevent goods made with stolen trade secrets from entering our market.

The INFORM Consumers Act was an important step forward.

I worry that China and other adversaries and competitors will exploit our system for their advantage.

More than a decade after the Supreme Court waded into patent eligibility law, confusion reigns about what areas of innovation are still eligible for patent protection.

These counterfeit products can be unsafe and harm consumers.

The threats to our economic leadership and our innovation ecosystem aren't just from China.

China has increasingly used legal processes to unseat America as the world's economic and innovation leader.

In 2021, four-fifths of all counterfeit goods entering the United States originated in China.

Trade secret theft has touched my own State of Delaware.

America's leadership on the global stage depends on our ability to foster and protect innovation and creativity, both at home and abroad.

Brazen trade, secret theft, and economic espionage by China is well documented.

China has been trying now for decades to unseat America as the world's innovation superpower.

Innovation is a key driver for our competitiveness and our national security.

I think this deserves our attention and you've got in me an enthusiastic partner.

I think the Choice Neighborhoods Program is one that could use more resources.

Combating homelessness is a lifelong passion of mine.

I look forward to fighting for the Home Allocation.

I want to make sure that we stay engaged in this as a Congress.

I look forward to staying in touch with you about that, because anyone who has supervised a large portfolio project knows there is always a tail, there is always a few that go sideways.

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the DFC next year, I am interested in how you monitor that.