Op-Eds

Former U.S. Ambassador to China, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and Governor of Washington Gary Locke just published a new opinion piece in the Financial Times explaining how modernizing the patent system is essential for maintaining global competitiveness and advancing society at large in the United States. Many multi-billion dollar industries exist today because of solid patent laws and IP protection. Yet over time, the US patent system has become outdated and confusing — and as Locke argues, this poses a risk to America’s global standing at the forefront of innovation. He highlights three bills currently in Congress that would vastly improve patent laws — the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act, and the RESTORE Patent Rights Act. Locke implores Congress to pass these crucial reforms immediately, warning, “If other nations succeed in making their patent systems stronger than our own, Americans could lose out on many of these benefits.”

C4IP Co-Chairs and former USPTO Directors Andrei Iancu and David Kappos just published a new opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal exploring how the ambiguity of the USPTO’s recent guidance on patenting AI-assisted inventions could inadvertently discourage inventors from making use of artificial intelligence tools. They highlight numerous ambiguities in the guidance — including not defining what computer functions or programs constitute AI — and argue that this uncertainty will put a target on the back of any patent application that made use of a computer, potentially denying patent protection to the very researchers driving our progress in high-tech fields. Instead of finalizing this flawed guidance, Iancu and Kappos write, the Patent Office should “do its part to encourage AI-facilitated inventions by issuing new guidance that recognizes AI as a tool—and a productive one at that.”

Karen Kerrigan, the president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, just published an opinion piece in the Buffalo News explaining how the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act and PREVAIL Act would help startups gain venture funding and bring their groundbreaking inventions to market. She illustrates the importance of patents to startup success, with patent-holding companies earning significantly more venture capital on average and being significantly more likely to go public. She also clarifies how misguided interventions from Congress and the Supreme Court have made it harder for small companies to earn and protect their patents, putting innovation at risk. Kerrigan concludes by highlighting how PERA and the PREVAIL Act would solve these issues, securing inventors’ rights and revitalizing our innovation economy.