The Daily Caller Opinion: Patent Reform Comes at the Expense of Entrepreneurship and the American Worker, by Rick Santorum
This post originally appeared in The Daily Caller on February 20, 2015.
After historic gains last fall, Republicans now control both houses of Congress and can set the legislative agenda for the next two years.
With such a strong conservative majority in place, you would expect Republicans to pursue a pro-growth agenda designed to signal to American workers and entrepreneurs that America is now open for business.
In some cases (energy and taxes in particular), Capitol Hill has a sent a strong message that it intends to move forward with polices that will spur economic growth and job creation. In the innovation sector, however, I am stunned that some conservatives on Capitol Hill that I greatly respect are supporting legislation that would undermine our Constitution and harm American innovation in the name of supposed patent reform.
Patent reform. It sounds great, right? There’s nothing that politicians like to claim credit for more than reform. But patent reform, as it’s being sold in the halls of Congress, is a direct attack on intellectual property rights and the Constitutional protection of property rights. Our founding fathers recognized the importance of intellectual property protection in a thriving, free economy, which is why they enshrined these rights into the Constitution.
In the Senate and as a candidate I have supported common sense reforms of our patent system. However, the reforms that have been advanced would harm patents across the board, rather than address specific areas. The bill would reward some powerful tech companies at the expense of the American worker and entrepreneurship.