Racine Journal Times Letter to the Editor: PATENT and Innovation Act could harm innovation, cost American jobs, by Kandy Fettes
This post originally appeared in The Racine Journal Times on April 5, 2016.
Innovation has driven our economy since our nation’s founding. The transistor, the artificial heart, the television are all American inventions that not only changed our economy, but changed the world.
Unfortunately, two bills working their way through Congress could threaten that innovation. The PATENT Act (S. 1137) and Innovation Act (HR. 9) amends current patent law to make it nearly impossible for small businesses and inventors to protect their innovations. These bills accomplish shutting out the little guy by making the legal process to protect a patent far more burdensome and complicated than it currently is. The result is that mega-corporations and their teams of lawyers will still be able to defend patents on their inventions while little guys will be helpless as others come in and profit off their hard work.