Innovation Alliance Blog Post: Big10 Universities Send Sen. Durbin a Letter Expressing Opposition to Legislation That Hampers Innovation
On January 20, 2015 presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten universities sent Senator Durbin a letter expressing concern about the harm that could be done to research universities from proposed changes to the patent system. They wrote:
… one of the issues of importance is the recent effort to rewrite patent litigation law. We urge Congress to take a cautious approach in this endeavor. While we support the goal of targeting abuse of the patent system and especially abusive patent litigation, we respectfully ask that you preserve the ability of small businesses and universities to license and enforce their patent rights. […] What Congress must not do is turn that effort into making legitimate patent holders – such as universities and our commercial partners – unable to license and defend their patents. We urge you to support us on this issue and oppose legislation that hampers innovation.
Signees of the letter included presidents and chancellors of: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, Michigan State University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Read the complete letter here.