Des Moines Business Record
05-26-07
Congress must protect patent laws
By Jim Kurtenbach
America has always revered its innovators, and Iowa has never been short of
talented inventors.
Fortunately for these inventors, America's patent laws were there to protect their
inventions and processes, so that all of their investment and dedication would not
be co-opted by others.
The amount invested in intellectual property is staggering, and patents are the
inventor's incentive; without them, there is no reason to dedicate the time, money
and resources to an invention. Patents are to intellectual property what the police
are to physical property. Without them, the system would collapse.
Unfortunately for Iowa and America, a foreign company is attempting to subvert
this creative process by destroying the patents that protect these innovators. A
Swiss drug manufacturer, Roche Holding AG, is attempting an end run around
U.S. patent laws in order to enrich itself at the expense of Americans.
One form of patent protection is the process patent, which gives an inventor the
exclusive right to use a process to create a product. This protection guarantees
that others cannot copy the product by aping the process. Roche is attempting to
get Congress to make changes allowing for the importation of goods
manufactured abroad using processes patented here.
Though the change in patent law involves only the striking of five words from the
current codes, the implications are severe. If this company gets its way, no
product made in the United States will be safe from foreign copies.
Manufacturing centers can be set up in poor countries with cheap labor, and the
products they create can be sold here at a much lower price.
How can America be protected against this insurgency from abroad? The
International Trade Commission currently serves this role. The ITC was
empowered by Congress to exclude for entry into the United States goods made
abroad in violation of an American patent. The ITC can allow for exceptions if a
product made abroad is beneficial for the public health, promotes the welfare of
Americans or brings competition to a market where it did not previously exist.
Further, the president of the United States can overrule an ITC exclusion order at
any time.
Roche is funding a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort in an attempt to cripple the
ITC. Its lobbyists have gone to work on Congress, including the Iowa delegation,
with a campaign to mislead members of Congress into thinking a five-word
change is a technical correction, when in fact it is a substantive change in
intellectual property law.
The millions being spent on lobbying pale in comparison to the costs of
developing safe and effective medicines. This drug maker has been unable to
innovate its way into the American market and is now attempting to legislate itself
into a competitive position with American firms.
Congress should be strengthening U.S. patent protections rather than weakening
them. Congress should not allow a foreign company to subvert our processes for
its gain.
Jim Kurtenbach is a general partner in the private equity firm Prairie Oak
Capital LLC and an associate professor at Iowa State University.