{"id":903,"date":"2019-04-02T20:15:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T03:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=903"},"modified":"2019-04-02T20:15:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T03:15:44","slug":"congress-must-protect-inventor-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/patent-reform\/congress-must-protect-inventor-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress Must Protect Inventor Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever since the\nLeahy-Smith America\nInvents Act<\/a> was passed by the 112th<\/sup>\nCongress in 2011, inventors have been discouraged to innovate by failing to\nsecure the exclusive rights to their inventions through a patent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was bad enough\nthat the Act changed patent law from a \u201cfirst to invent\u201d to \u201ca first to file\u201d\nfor patents. It also created new and easier ways to invalidate an existing\npatent. Prior to this, to invalidate a patent required going to a judicial\ncourt with a jury and its various\nprotections offered to the holder of a property right. The Act created\nprocedures for an administrative court, the PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeals\nBoard), that does not have the same protections.  PTAB has become a nightmare for inventors\nbecause it allows infringers to challenge the validity of patents in the PTAB.\nSome inventors have faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expense and\nannihilation of their patent rights in unlimited third-party patent validity\nchallenges. Serial petitions are common with valuable patents suffering a dozen\nor more attacks with costs typically being in excess of $350,000 for each PTAB\ndefense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some inventors\nhave endured up to a decade and spent tens of millions of dollars in legal\nexpense to obtain a final judgment in court against infringers of their\npatent.  Even then, inventors have not\nbeen not compensated fairly or sufficiently to prevent infringement of their\npatent rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nexample, in the Amazon documentary, Invalidated: The Shredding of the U.S. Patent System<\/a>,  Josh Malone, the inventor of Bunch O Balloons, stated that\nhis court case against Telebrands has cost over $20M.  It also documented how Dan Phillips, inventor\nof the Bionic Wrench, has been fighting Sears in court since 2012. A judge\nrecently tossed out the jury verdict that held Sears liable because of their\nbankruptcy. I understand his appeal process will take several more years.\n(Note:  The\nfull version is available now on Amazon<\/a>\nand iTunes<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just China that is stealing our technology; it is\nU.S.-based corporations stealing technology from inventors right and left.\nGoogle, Apple, Amazon, Telebrands and other big corporations are getting away\nwith profiting from pirated product. Why should large corporations be\nallowed to steal inventions and block access to the legal system for private\ninventors and small businesses? How can a small business survive if it takes a\ndecade and millions of dollars in legal expense to protect intellectual\nproperty rights?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Randy\nLandreneau, President of US Inventor, Inc., \u201cCurrent policies and case law\nfocus instead on patents as monetary assets held by corporations, injecting\nextremely high cost and risk to enforcing any single patent and making patent\nenforcement a \u2018game of kings.\u2019 Big corporations play the game by hiring dozens\nof lawyers, hoarding hundreds of patents, and pouring millions of dollars into\nlitigation. Inventors cannot play that game and need a viable path to enforce\ntheir patent rights because PTAB rulings have canceled claims in 85% of issued\npatents. This is disheartening and\ndiscouraging to inventors and startups in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, \u201cIn the\nrare instance that the PTAB permits an inventor to keep his patent, there is no\nmonetary recovery. This means the inventor has nothing to offer a law firm to\ntake the case on a contingency basis. Pro bono defense is not available either.\nInventors with valuable inventions have virtually no chance of keeping their\npatents in the PTAB.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year three\nbills were introduced to Congress to protect inventors rights, but these bills\nnever got out of committee for a vote on the House floor:
\n
\nH.R.6557<\/strong>,\nInventor Protection Act<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 \u201cTo amend title 35,\nUnited States Code, to restore patent rights to inventors, and for other\npurposes.\u201d It was designed to restore patent protection for inventors by\nreversing a generation of laws and regulations. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S.1390, Stronger Patents Act of 2017<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 <\/strong>A bill to strengthen the position of the United States as the world’s leading innovator by amending title 35, United States Code, to protect the property rights of the inventors that grow the country’s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H.R.6264 – Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act of 2018<\/a> \u2013 A bill \u201cto promote the leadership of the United States in global innovation by establishing a robust patent system that restores and protects the right of inventors to own and enforce private property rights in inventions and discoveries, and for other purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nIn order to foster the development of American manufacturing, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8<\/a>\nof the Constitution states that the Congress shall have the power “To\npromote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times\nto Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and\nDiscoveries.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enabled\nAmerica to become the world leader in innovation, driven largely by this simple\nyet profound promise to inventors of the exclusive right to their discoveries.\nWithout secure patent rights, inventors are starved of time and capital\nrequired to explore and develop new technologies. Today, the United States\nfaces an escalating innovation crisis as we are forced to rely on outdated or\nimported technologies. Congress must act quickly to restore reliable patent\nrights for inventors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a mentor for\nSan Diego\u2019s CONNECT Springboard accelerator program for a few years and a\ndirector on the board of the San Diego Inventors Forum, I work with inventors\ndesigning new products or break-through technologies. Local inventors have the\nopportunity to compete in the San Diego Inventors Forum annual invention\ncontest for best new consumer product or best new technology. All contestants\nmust have applied for at least a provisional patent before they can\nparticipate. The future success of their product or technology is contingent\nupon their having a patent they can protect from infringement. Their ability to\nraise the financial investment they need to bring their product to the\nmarketplace depends upon their being able to protect their patent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is this\nimportant? Because most new technologies, especially break-through or\ndisruptive technologies, come from individual inventors who either start a\ncompany or license their technology to companies that are more able to take\nthem to the market. It is critical for inventors to be able to have some\nassurance that the rights to their patents will be reviewed in a consistent\nmanner so that they will be able to secure investors and get their product into\nthe marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inventors must be\nequipped and motivated to apply their knowledge and creativity to solving\nproblems.  In order to encourage\ninventors to share their discovery in exchange for a time-limited exclusive\nright, patents owned by the original inventor must be protected from the\npolicies that target assets held and traded by non-inventors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States must retake the lead in the next wave of technological innovation in areas like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and medical diagnostics. Protection for discoveries is these fields is the absolute best way to promote progress in science and useful arts in our modern day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Inventors\nstarted off The Inventor’s Project in February by co-hosting an open house on\nCapitol Hill with the Congressional Inventions Caucus. A bipartisan group of\nCongressional members and staff attended. As a result, the Inventions Caucus\nwill continue to grow and support the mission of educating Congress on the\nimportance of innovation and small inventors and promote the Inventor Rights Resolution<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SUMMARY\nOF THE RESOLUTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our patent system\nis in crisis. Recent changes to patent laws and Supreme Court decisions have\nadversely affected inventors such that the requirement in Article I, Section 8\nof the Constitution of “securing for limited times to inventors the\nexclusive right to their discoveries” is no longer achieved. It is nearly\nimpossible to stop an infringer from using an invention without permission, or\nto make them to pay for the damage caused when they do. The undersigned\ninventors call on Congress to pass legislation to address these critical\nissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PTAB<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USPTO Must\nStop Taking Back Patents from Inventors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INJUNCTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courts must prohibit the use of a patented invention without permission<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROFITS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infringers must\nnot profit by using an invention without permission<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must stop the\nAmerica Invents Act from gradually destroying the American Patent System. We need to encourage our own\nCongressional Representative to co-sponsor or support an Inventor Rights Act to\nrestore our rights as inventors in this Congress\nand reinvigorate the famous American innovation system.  Join us by signing the Inventor Rights Resolution<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act was passed by the 112th Congress in 2011, inventors have been discouraged to innovate by failing to secure the exclusive rights to their inventions through a patent. It was bad enough that the Act changed patent law from a \u201cfirst to invent\u201d to \u201ca first to file\u201d for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,216,152],"tags":[85,146],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inellectual-property","category-legislation","category-patent-reform","tag-intellectual-property","tag-patent-reform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}