Innovation Alliance Blog Post: Venture Capitalists Urges Congress to Take “Measured and Targeted” Approach to New Patent Law
Today, Bobby Franklin, President & CEO of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), wrote to Congressional Judiciary Committee leadership urging thoughtful and careful deliberation by Congress before moving forward with new patent legislation. Echoing the concerns of universities and inventor communities and speaking for venture capitalists committed to funding American entrepreneurs, Franklin wrote:
NVCA believes it is essential that Congress take a measured and targeted approach in determining what steps, if any, are needed to address perceived abuses of the U.S. patent system. Major parts of this country’s innovation-driven economy, which is the envy of the rest of the world, are critically dependent on patents to protect investments of time, money, and other resources from competitors and copyists, both foreign and domestic. For thousands of venture-backed companies across a broad spectrum of industries, preservation of their ability to obtain and enforce patents is fundamental to survival. If a congressional effort to address abusive litigation practices were to have the practical effect of making patent enforcement more risky, cumbersome and expensive, it will have a far greater impact on some of these highly innovative companies than on the few entities perceived to be abusing the litigation process.
Read the full NCVA letter here.
Valerie Gaydos, founder of the Angel Venture Forum, a group of leading “angel investors” in the Mid-Atlantic region, expressed a similar sentiment when speaking at a George Mason University Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property and Inventor’s Project event on Capitol Hill on January 29. Gaydos reiterated the importance of patent protections to investors and noted that she would not invest in a start up company that did not have the collateral of intellectual property rights. To stand with NCVA and other American investors and entrepreneurs, tell Congress to protect their innovations by signing the Save the Inventor petition here.