Patsy T. Mink: “I rise today to stand up for our Nations small businesses and individual investors. With all the data on the obstacles…”

“I rise today to stand up for our Nations small businesses and individual investors. With all the data on the obstacles small businesses face in our increasingly globally-oriented marketplace, I am quite dismayed about the changes advocated by this bill. While supporters claim this bill helps businesses and inventors, closer examination proves otherwise. Rather than assisting all businesses and inventors, this bill allows large corporations and foreign entities to gain an advantage over America's small businesses and individual inventors. Proponents of this legislation claim that this bill benefits investors and the American society as a whole. They contend that by publishing patents in a shorter amount of time, businesses and the government will be able to save money from eliminating duplicative research. In addition, supporters claim by disclosing the patent information in 18 months inventors are compensated for royalties earlier in the patent process. Existing law provides that a patent applicant must remain confidential until the patent is granted. Do we really want to disclose information to our competitors just to harmonize our patent laws with international standards?”