A Good Opportunity to Reframe the Patent Reform Debate A Good Opportunity to Reframe the Patent Reform Debate
By Chris Gallagher June 1, 2016
...The New Invention Caucuses: Senators Daines and Hirono have circulated letters inviting Senate colleagues to join an Invention Caucus whose purpose is to “educate members and staff about the innovation ecosystem.” A House Caucus counterpart established by Reps. Foster and Gosar invites colleagues to share candid, balanced conversations about regulatory and legal IP barriers to economic growth. Both initiatives can enable better member understanding of our innovation ecosystem, but only if pro-patent advocates actively support them.
Invention Caucus founders will need support to help them efficiently achieve their laudable objectives. Members should be urged to join. Joining a caucus is not an admission of common cause, only of common concern. All who join will only have signaled interest and a willingness to learn more about our innovation ecosystem. There is no sound policy reason to cripple commercialization of federally-funded basic research. Private investment in the development of such research is its only pathway to the public’s return on members’ R&D investments. Members who understand our nation’s innovation ecosystem will not again be stampeded again into thinking they are curbing patent trolls by voting “Yes” to big tech-backed proposals that will cripple the innovation ecosystem. The Invention Caucuses provide a pathway through big tech’s walls of misdirection. We must help their leadership succeed
We cannot not match big tech’s financial resources and political clout. If we productively use this pause to reframe the congressional question, we can undo HR 9 and S 1137’s destructive answer. By focusing member attention on how our innovation ecosystem delivers the public benefits of their funding for basic R&D, we can force our anti-patent adversaries to explain why they should say “no” to messing with it by voting “no.”
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/06/01/reframe-patent-reform-debate/id=69623/