Political Quotes

“I simply want to add a few words as cosponsor of the Pryor amendment. We have traded it back and forth. I think the distinguished Senator from Arkansas has made a great contribution by bringing this portion of our law up. It is a complicated area. I would like, with the indulgence of Members, just to briefly try and simplify it, if I can. We have in the past followed the law. The American law was 17 years of exclusive protection for a patented item. Many countries in the world had a law that said 20 years from the time of filing for that patent. So we differed from the world somewhat. When the trade pact was approved, which this Congress did approve, did ratify, we agreed to go to a system followed by most other countries; that is, 20 years from when you file it instead of 17 years from when it is approved. A modest change. For some items that are patented, that is, the creator has exclusive protection, that meant they got a longer period of coverage than originally planned, a longer period of coverage than they had when they created the product or invented it, a longer period of coverage than what they budgeted for, a longer period of coverage than what the law said. In other words, when we ratified that treaty and passed the implementing language, we made a retroactive change in the law.”