Op-Eds

In a new piece for Newsweek, Mircea Geoană, former NATO deputy secretary general and president of the Aspen Institute Romania, and Andrei Iancu, C4IP co-chair and former USPTO Director, warn that protecting intellectual property (IP) is not merely a trade issue, but a national security imperative. Strong and enforceable IP rights give innovators the confidence to pursue risky breakthroughs, from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence systems. They point out that strong IP protections have long underpinned Western security. During the Cold War, for instance, breakthroughs like stealth technology, GPS, and satellite communications were made possible by a strong innovation ecosystem that fostered discovery and entrepreneurship. While Western nations are busy debating the merits of IP protections, China now leads in 57 of 64 critical technologies and issues nearly three times more patents than the United States — advances driven in part by systematic IP theft. If Western nations fail to enforce strong protections, they risk ceding military and economic advantages to foreign adversaries. “IP rights are the load-bearing walls of innovation,” they explain. “If they are weak or inconsistently enforced, vulnerabilities emerge that directly threaten NATO’s technological superiority.” Read the full op-ed here: https://www.newsweek.com/defend-nations-nato-must-defend-innovation-opinion-2115891

In a recent op-ed for Bloomberg Law, C4IP Board Members and retired Federal Circuit Judges Paul Michel and Kathleen O’Malley argue that Congress must pass the bipartisan Patent Eligibility Restoration Act in order to repair the damage the Supreme Court has inflicted on America’s innovation ecosystem. For more than a decade, a series of rulings has narrowed the types of inventions eligible for patent protection. The Court’s 2012 Mayo v. Prometheus decision effectively stripped patent eligibility from medical diagnostics, triggering an estimated $9 billion drop in diagnostic investment over the next four years. Then came Alice v. CLS Bank, which led to a sweeping denial of software and AI patents. As Judges Michel and O’Malley point out, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected most AI patent applications it received in 2018 because they were deemed ineligible. These rulings have slowed America’s progress in critical areas like biological manufacturing and artificial intelligence while global counterparts, particularly China, surge ahead. “By restoring patent eligibility for categories of inventions that courts have wrongly declared ineligible… PERA would once again give US inventors and companies confidence to invest in technologies that will define our future,” Judges Michel and O’Malley write. “After over a decade of ongoing harm, it is time for Congress to fix the Supreme Court’s mistakes.”

In a new Law360 op-ed, C4IP Board Member and former Federal Judge Kathleen O’Malley explains why Congress should advance bipartisan reforms that would strengthen America’s patent system and protect innovation. She points to three bills as critical starting points. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act would restore clarity for patent eligibility in emerging high-tech fields like AI, biotech, and medical diagnostics. The RESTORE Patent Rights Act would empower inventors to reliably block infringers from stealing their patented technology, reversing the harmful effects of the Supreme Court’s eBay v. MercExchange decision. And by closing loopholes that allow duplicative challenges to the same patent in multiple forums, the PREVAIL Act would curb a tactic often used by large corporations to wear down smaller competitors through drawn-out litigation. Judge O’Malley also calls for Congress to enact policies that counter foreign IP abuses, particularly from China, and set balanced rules for artificial intelligence that protect against potential harms without curbing innovation. Taken together, she argues, these reforms are essential to ensuring the future of American innovation. “If Congress follows through, the next generation of inventors will not have to fight an uphill battle against corporate giants or foreign competitors rigging the system. Instead, they will have a fair shot to turn big ideas into world-changing breakthroughs,” she writes.