Political Quotes

“If my colleagues do not think submarine patenting is a serious problem, and it has been diminuendo by some on the other side, let me quote from a witness before the subcommittee of the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher], a gentleman named Bill Budinger, an independent single inventor who had his own little company, Rodel Company, and here is what he said to Mr. Rohrabacher's committee: ``I have heard people say there is no such thing as submarine patents, and to borrow a phrase from earlier, I think the folks that say that are either naive or disingenuous. Here is a list of 300 patents that were issued in the 2-year period before the law changed,'' that is 1994. ``Each of these patents will monopolize a segment of American technology for a period of 25 years or more. They are going to provide a minimum of 25-year monopolies and some of the monopolies here are 40 years. Every one of these patents is issued to and owned by a foreign corporation. So these folks learned how to game the system.''”