On the recordJune 22, 2011
In the first day of this session we all took an oath to preserve and protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And a day or two later, for the first time in history, we read the Constitution on the floor from beginning to end. We changed the rules to have a constitutional debate when the constitutionality of legislation before us was in question. And this is the first time in the history of the United States House of Representatives when a question serious enough to have a constitutional debate is being debated on the floor for 20 minutes. Unlike what my friend from Texas (Mr. Smith) has said, this bill is unconstitutional, and voting for this bill will violate one's oath of office. And here is why. The intellectual property clause of the Constitution gives the protection to the first-to-invent, and what happens later in the Patent Office only protects that right. It doesn't denigrate the right, and the right is given to the person who is first-to-invent. If someone who was the first-to-invent ends up losing the race to the Patent Office, this bill takes away a property right, and that violates the Fifth Amendment. Now, inventor means first inventor in the Constitution. And earlier this month, in Stanford University v. Roche, the Chief Justice has said, since 1790 the patent law has operated on the premise that in an invention, the rights belong to the inventor.…
