Townhall: Restore America’s Freedom to Innovate by James Edwards
On November 14, Congress will consider two bipartisan bills that’d make it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to patent their discoveries and inventions — and defend those patents from theft. The bills would propel our economy forward and generate high-paying American jobs.
Our Constitution notes that patents and other forms of intellectual property protection are foundational for “progress” and empowers Congress to grant inventors “exclusive right” to their “discoveries” for a limited time before others can make free use of them.
Those IP protections have driven our economy for nearly 250 years. Today, IP-intensive industries account for nearly half of the nation’s economic output and support about 50 million jobs. An individual working in one of these sectors earns 60% more, on average, than an employee in a non-IP business.