June Highlights: Members of Congress Respond to C4IP’s Innovation Scorecard
C4IP recently released its 2025 Congressional Innovation Scorecard, an annual report grading members of Congress’s performance on innovation and intellectual property issues. The Scorecard found that overall, Congress’s attentiveness to IP has increased, with a notable uptick in IP-related bills and resolutions being introduced in the 118th Congress — yet the majority of members continue to show only a limited interest in advancing pro-IP policy.
Even though the number of pro-IP senators grew this year — now topping 20 — the majority of Congress continues to underperform. More than half of all lawmakers received a grade of ‘C’ or lower, signaling limited engagement on policies that drive American innovation.
As the Scorecard concludes, the 119th Congress must promote IP rights with greater urgency in order to ensure America’s future economic prosperity and national security.
Throughout June, C4IP worked to raise widespread awareness of these findings. Our efforts drew coverage from the media and responses from many members of Congress:
- C4IP released the 2025 Congressional Innovation Scorecard in late May alongside a statement that summarized its findings, encouraging lawmakers to prioritize pro-IP policies.
- Several high-scoring members of Congress took to the press and social media to reiterate their strong support for IP rights and thank C4IP for recognizing their efforts.
- Chris Coons (D-Del.) highlighted his “A+” grade from the Scorecard in a post on X, stating that he “will always fight for bipartisan solutions to protect intellectual property rights so that America’s innovators can keep pushing us into the future.”
- Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) highlighted his “A+” grade from the Scorecard in a post on X, noting that “Innovation is key to American strength. We must protect the ideas, inventions, and creators that drive our economy forward.” He also featured his Scorecard grade in his latest newsletter, which was picked up by The Gilmer Mirror.
- Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) issued a press release spotlighting his “A” grade from the Scorecard and reaffirming his commitment “to focus on intellectual property policies that foster the innovation and creativity we need to drive human progress.”
Read It Now: “Congressional Innovation Scorecard, Second Edition”
- News outlets also dedicated coverage to the Scorecard’s findings:
Additional Coalition Updates
- On June 30, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen issued a statement urging Congress to remove the moratorium on state-level regulations of artificial intelligence technologies from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that the Senate was in the process of voting on at the time of the release.
- On June 27, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen submitted a comment letter responding to the United States Trade Representative’s recent request for comments on foreign freeloading on U.S. innovation, emphasizing that supporting patents — and urging other nations to do the same — is key to maintaining America’s status as an innovation leader.
- On June 26, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expressing concern about CMS’s proposal to group reformulated drugs together with their predecessors during price negotiations. The policy would disincentivize follow-on innovation by devaluing innovation and patents associated with those improvements, eroding trust in that industry sector and setting a precedent that could erode trust more broadly across all sectors.
- On June 25, C4IP Co-Chair Andrei Iancu spoke on a panel at the National Academy of Inventors’ 14th Annual Conference, which discussed how government, private industry, and universities work together to drive innovation.
- On June 24, C4IP Co-Chair Andrei Iancu and C4IP Chief Policy Officer and Counsel Jamie Simpson, in addition to Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), spoke at a conference at the USC Gould School of Law about the importance of strong IP rights to national security and technological leadership.
- On June 13, C4IP Board Member Judge Kathleen O’Malley (ret.) published an opinion essay in Law360 arguing that the passage of three pro-patent reforms — the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, the PREVAIL Act, and the RESTORE Patent Rights Act — is necessary to ensure American leadership in next-generation technologies.
“Strengthening patent protections, cracking down on foreign IP abuses, and setting clear rules for AI are not just technical fixes — they are critical reforms that will keep America competitive in the global economy.”
- On June 6, Center Square noted C4IP’s strong support for the PREVAIL Act in an article on the bill, which aims to protect inventors from harassment and abuse in Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings.
- On June 4, C4IP Executive Director Frank Cullen published an opinion essay in the World Intellectual Property Review discussing the central role patents, trademarks, and copyrights play in the music industry, and proposing several policy reforms to help AI enhance creativity and productivity in music without eroding the IP rights that serve as the industry’s foundation.
“To keep creative industries like music flourishing, policymakers need to strike a thoughtful balance. They must enact targeted rules curtailing uses of AI that exploit creators and infringe their IP rights without consent.”