Lamar Smith on patent reform

Lamar Smith in mainjustice on 4 Nov 2010:

Patent Reform: Nearly 30 percent of American workers are found in intellectual property industries such as health care, entertainment, renewable energy and information-technology. Patents protect this intellectual property and encourage the creativity and innovation that generate jobs and increase productivity.

The theft of intellectual property costs Americans billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. When inventors and businesses invest in research and development that result in patents, they have the right to benefit from their efforts. The American economy benefits too by the jobs these patents create.

We need to improve our patent system to better protect intellectual property and help ensure that good patents are approved more quickly. There is bipartisan support for much-needed revisions to our patent system, which has not been significantly updated in over half a century.