Marcy Kaptur: “I wanted to state for the Record that there are many university scholars, inventors, lists long that have written us in…”

“I wanted to state for the Record that there are many university scholars, inventors, lists long that have written us in support of our legislation against the base bill and, of course, many of them are in a precarious position because those universities receive funds from some of the very same interests that are promoting H.R. 400 and in many ways not being sensitive to the smaller inventors, the smaller businesses, those individual inventors that we wish to protect and give fair standing to as this measure moves forward. Our amendment essentially would attempt to protect those inventors' patents prior to issuance. We do not want any invitation to copy, which H.R. 400 certainly promotes, because it says that within 18 months, that patent would be published even before it is granted. Right now an individual is protected until the time that the patent is issued, until it is granted. So it is a substantial collapsing of the protection time for an individual inventor.”