Legal Newsline: Conservative group sends out memo urging others to reject proposed patent reforms, by Jessica Karmasek
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – A group of leading conservatives, in a memo released last week, is calling on fellow conservative groups and leaders to stand up for patent rights and reject current proposed patent reforms.
Among those who signed the so-called “Memo for the Movement,” sent out by the Conservative Action Project Friday: former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, who served under President Ronald Reagan; CAP Chairwoman Becky Norton Dunlop, a former White House advisor to Reagan; David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth; Phyllis Schlafly, the founder, chairwoman and CEO of Eagle Forum; and Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia Attorney General, a registered patent attorney and president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee.
The two-page memo, which a spokesman for the group said is being distributed among other conservatives, is a call to arms.
“Our Founding Fathers recognized the importance of intellectual property by writing patent protections into the Constitution — Article 1, Section 8. They understood that the right to own your ideas was important to economic liberty,” CAP wrote. “As a result of this tradition, and a long history of defending those rights, the U.S. has led the world in invention and innovation.”
It continued, “Strong patent protections have set the United States apart from nations like China and India, among others, and have been critical to the creation of wealth and jobs and to the U.S.’s role in the world.
“For that reason, conservatives should be wary when elected officials start talking about reforming the patent system.”