I rise to speak about the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. This is bipartisan legislation that will enhance and protect innovation in our country. I want to commend Senator Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for his leadership and tireless work on this bill. I also want to commend my Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, particularly Senators Grassley, Kyl, and Hatch, who have worked diligently with Chairman Leahy in this effort to reform our patent system. In this country, if you have a good idea for a new and useful product, you can get a patent and turn that idea into a thriving business. Millions of good American jobs are created in this way. The goals of today's legislation are to improve the operations of the Patent and Trademark Office and to help inventors in this country better protect their investments in innovation. By protecting innovations, we will help grow our economy and help businesses create jobs for American workers. I regret that after the Senate passed a version of this legislation in March in a broadly bipartisan vote of 95-5, the House of Representatives modified the Senate-passed legislation. Not all of those changes improved the bill. Today, we voted on several amendments that responded to changes made by the House. I voted in support of an amendment that sought to strike Section 37, which the House had added to the bill.…
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