The Des Moines Register Letter: American success hinges on innovation, by Dan Schneider
This post originally appeared in The Des Moines Register on September 13, 2015.
America was rapidly losing the Cold War to the Soviet Union when Reagan was elected president in 1980. His simple solution: “We win and they lose.” He explained why the Soviets were doomed to fail: No country with centralized control, that destroys incentives for innovation or denies rewards for individual achievement, can endure.
President Reagan understood that America’s ability to succeed hinged on our remarkable will to innovate, which involved respecting the importance of intellectual property rights via a strong U.S. patent system.
The ability to secure and protect patents allows innovators to deliver groundbreaking innovations that change our lives and strengthen our global standing. In Iowa and nationwide, our patent system keeps us at the forefront of innovation worldwide, allowing investment in initiatives that better protect the nation from countries like China, which may be our economic competitor, but can just as easily be considered a military threat.