USPTO Director David Kappos and IP experts discussed the link between patents and jobs at the Innovation Alliance conference "Patents, Job Creation and Innovation: A Virtuous Circle."

Click here for video and text from featured speakers and panelists.

Photo by Laurence Genon

“Downgrading patent rights – which are fundamentally property rights – will seriously constrict innovation and the ability of domestic manufacturers to turn good ideas into products consumer want, and thus good jobs for working Americans.”

Letter from 24 Leading Conservative Organizations, 2009

"Intellectual property protection – “patent reform” – isn’t an esoteric issue; it’s a jobs issue, plain and simple."

Multi Union Letter 2009

"We rely on the U.S. patent system to protect our investments, and those protections provide an incentive for us to continue manufacturing in the United States.”

Letter from 135 Manufacturing Companies 2009

Startups are responsible for almost all the new jobs created in the United States since 1977.

Kauffman Foundation study

Three-fourths of executives at venture capital-backed startups say patents are vital to getting financing.

2008 Berkeley Patent Survey

"We strongly support patent reform that is balanced and keeps in mind that defending against infringement is disproportionately burdensome for small venture-backed companies, while the benefit of infringing relative to the cost is disproportionately attractive to large companies.”

Letter from 30 Venture Capital Groups, 2007

A former IP official in Beijing High People's Court China said of 2007 patent legislation: "…it is more friendly to the infringers…will make the patent less reliable, easier to be challenged and cheaper to be infringed.”

Intellectual Property News

“Unquestionably,, improving our patent system and the quality of patents is of paramount importance.  However, those improvements cannot come at the cost of some domestic industries over others.”

Reps. John Boehner and Roy Blunt, 2007