Political Quotes

“The fact of the matter is, under our legislation, they have that same amount of time, they have that time under the new legislation, and they will have, in most cases, more time than they have under current law. Furthermore, the average patent in this country today is issued after 19 months. This calls for publication after 18 months. So most patents are not going to experience any significant difference in how quickly they are published. But here is the important fact about this, and this is what is wrong about this entire debate by the opponents. We are not talking about trade secrets here, we are talking about publication of patents. Patents have always been protected in this country by publication. That is how we say to the world that an American inventor has put forward an idea that is entitled to be protected under our laws. We do not tell them to hide it under a rock. We do not tell them to lock it up in a safe. We tell them that the U.S. Government will publish their patent and say they were the first with that idea and they are entitled to 17-years-plus protection. That is what they get under this bill as well, only they get it better, because now they are going to be published sooner.”