Professional Inventors Alliance

Promoting Inventor-Entrepreneur and Small Business interests since 1993

 

 

 ***News Release ***

 

Leading Inventors Urge Bush to Protect Intellectual Property Rights

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     Contact:  Ronald J. Riley

    RJR (at) PIAUSA.org

    (202) 318-1595

September 25, 2007

 

Washington, D.C. ­–In a letter to President Bush, Nobel Laureate John B. Fenn added his voice to a growing group of notable American inventors working to strengthen the patent system and foster innovation and U.S. job creation.  The letter released today called on the administration to help fix pending patent legislation that would undermine the role of independent inventors and venture capital in creating new U.S. industries, and increase the control of global corporations over American intellectual property.

 

The alliance called upon the President to safeguard intellectual property rights in the face of a heated battle by Microsoft, Cisco and other large technology corporations to rush Senate passage of the controversial measure, S. 1145.  Its companion measure, H.R. 1908, passed the House on September 14, 2007.

 

The letter stated: “Protection of intellectual property rights is a fundamental right of Americans.  Otherwise, innovation becomes a hollow exercise and American inventions become available for the taking.  Without protection and a reward incentive, innovation --and the venture capital that fuels it --will wither.”

 

The alliance, led by the Professional Inventors Alliance, consists of thousands of independent inventors and intellectual property experts, including:

 

  • Nobel Laureate John B. Fenn, a co-winner of the 2002 prize in chemistry for developing methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules.

  • Dr. Ray Damadian, creator of magnetic resonance imaging to detect cancer in tissue, otherwise known as the “MRI” (patent number 3,789,832).  Dr. Damadian received the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation’s National Inventor of the Year Award, presented in June, 2007 by Rep. Howard Berman.

  • Dr. Wilson Greatbatch, creator of the cardiac pacemaker (patent number 3,057,356).

  • James Fergason, inventor of LCD technology (patent number 3,731,986).

  • Leo Rubin, who developed the implantable cardiac defibrillator employing a digital waveform analyzer system (patent number 5,014,701). 

 

“Today, when America is under siege from abroad in a trade war, we are gravely concerned for the future of innovation in America and with it America’s competitiveness,” said the coalition in its letter. “This is the time that America must strengthen our patent system, but the current patent bills (H.R. 1908 and S. 1145) will seriously weaken our patent system and with it will seriously weaken innovation in America and America’s competitiveness.”

 

The alliance is urging Congress to strengthen the current patent review process instead of changing the “venerable patent law” that is the foundation for protecting the intellectual property rights of small inventors.  Simply providing necessary staffing resources and de-politicizing the review committee appointments process will bring significant improvements, says the group.

 

The full letter and list of co-signers is available at  www.BushOpenLetter9-17-07.PIAUSA.org on the Professional Inventors Alliance website, www.PIAUSA.org.  Additional information about members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame can be obtained at www.invent.org.

The Professional Inventors Alliance USA works to protect American invention and encourage innovation by providing the nation’s independent inventors a united voice to improve public policy.


Professional Inventors Alliance
Washington, DC

September 17, 2007

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House

Re: “The Patent Reform Act of 2007:”

Dear Mr. President:

We represent a cross section of American inventors who have developed innovations ranging from simple consumer products to breakthrough technologies, all of which have contributed to our country's economic growth, high standard of living and health, and technological leadership. Many of us are both inventors and technology entrepreneurs.

We are deeply concerned about the dangerously destructive changes proposed to U.S. patent laws in the 110th Congress. Nobel Laureate Robert Solow estimates that 90% of U.S. economic growth is the result of technological advances, which our patent system facilitates. But if the new “Patent Reform Act of 2007” passes into law, it will greatly reduce our country's technological muscle and our ability to create new industries with more and better jobs for our citizens. Thus, we are stepping forward to make our voices heard by the U.S. Senate.

The “Patent Reform Act of 2007” is deeply flawed. For example:

• It would mandate that the Patent Office publish all patent applications on the Internet 18 months after their filing date, years before the trade secrets can be secured by patents. Patents usually take three years and often much longer to issue. Thus, this bill enables anyone, located anywhere, to copy our trade secrets with impunity.

• It would devastate patent enforcement by significantly reducing royalties and significantly increasing cost, time, and risk to litigate against infringers. This would significantly increase U.S. patent litigation and would actually encourage more, rather than less, technology theft.

We were pleased to see that the Office of Management and Budget expressed concerns about this bill. The House bill was not properly considered because the House Leadership rushed it to a vote with very little debate.

We ask you to send to the Senate a strong message that any changes in our patent laws must strengthen, rather than weaken the U.S. patent system and must be thoroughly considered and debated. American innovation and American competitiveness are at stake with this bill.

Sincerely yours,



Ronald Riley, President
The Professional Inventors Alliance,
And the Co-Signing Inventors

Additional signatories are being accepted and posted on:
www.BushOpenLetter9-17-07.PIAUSA.org

Co-Signers:

Nobel Inventors:

* John B. Fenn - Mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules.

Hall of Fame Inventors:

* Dr. Ray Damadian, MD – Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
* James Fergason – LCD
* Dr. Wilson Greatbatch - The cardiac pacemaker.

Members of the American College of Physician Inventors:

* Leo Rubin - Implantable defibrillator combined with a pacemaker

Intellectual Property Experts:

* Irving Kayton - Prof. of Law Emeritus, George Mason Univ.
* David Pressman - Patent Lawyer & author of Patent It Yourself.

Economics:

* Pat Choate PhD – Author Agents of Influence & Hot Property.

Other Inventors:

* Sol Aisenberg Ph.D – Inventor & Advisor on Technology and Business for Inventors, Businesses, and Scientists.
* Kazimierz M. Binkowski – Tools & electrical power inventions.
* Victoria J Bingham - Security systems and consumer products.
* John H. Boucher, DVM, PhD - Animal pharmaceuticals.
* William F. Brabenec - Inventor
* Orville Alan Breazeale, MPA, CHMM, CEM - AB Defense Systems, LLC.
* Dr. Paul Burstein - Rocket motor inspection system.
* Arthur Stephen Casey Jr. - Medical educational devices.
* Leslie A. Cohen - Technology to aid the mobility impaired.
* Stan E. Delo - Aero-Marine Co. - Wind turbine control methods - Aerospace innovations.
* Stephen H. Downer - Pedestaled Seat for senior gardeners.
* Frampton Erroll Ellis - Anatomic Research, Inc., Naturally Stable Footwear
* Dr. George Freedman, Sleep apnea control system.
* Elon Gasper - Speech synthesis with synchronous animation.
* Jerald William Kaebisch, Jr., New Veggie Cutter.
* Skip Kaltenheuser - Lawyer & author
* Lou W. Koppe - Pres. West-Lock Fastener Corporation
* Lawrence B. Lockwood - Interactive multimedia information system.
* Rusty Mase - Recycling apparatus.
* Jacob Malta - Musical bells (Malta v. Schubmerich).
* George Margolin - Medical Devices - First Folding Keyboard, Motion Picture Background Systems
* Dennis McNeely - Army SBIR awardee for invention to prevent HMMWV rollover.
* John Melius - Multiple patents on hand fins and swim fins using Biomimetics
* George H. Morgan - Prof. Engineer, Patent Agent , jacks, brakes, clutches, hydraulic circuits.
* Conor O'Malley M.D. - Water conservation invention.
* Dr. Richard Pavelle - Method for increasing catalytic efficiency.
* Charles H Popenoe - SmartBolts load-indicating bolts, supplier to US Army, GE, Intel, etc.
* Dominic John Repici - Neural networks.
* Ronald J Riley - Electrified monorail & other inventions.
* John Harold Roberts Jr. - Refueling containment systems.
* John S. Roberts, Ph.D., MBA - Patent practitioner and licensing consultant.
* L. Don Roberts, Ph.D - Life Sciences, Symbiotx Laboratories, LLC.
* Daniel B Shore - Farm & industrial hydraulics.
* Adam J. Singer, MD - Physician, surgeon, and inventor.
* Edwin A. Suominen - Registered Patent Agent, Independent Inventor
* Patrick J. Tracy - Patent Attorney and Registered Professional Engineer.
* Peter Theis - Automated voice processing.
* Ron Westrum - Ph.D - Professor of sociology/technology studying Independent inventors - East Mich University.
* Stephen Wren - E-commerce system and methods.
* A. Ze'ev Hed, Sc.D. - Materials technologies, adv. Lighting, luminaires, instrumentation, refrigeration & cryogenics.

You may add your name to this letter.  Send your full name and up to a forty character description of your invention or field of expertise to RJR (at) PIAUSA.org

Listed below are those who signed on after the letter was published:

* John Ruhnke - System for Determining Overall HVAC Efficiences.
* Shoreh Parandoosh, Ph.D - Biodegradable polymers, hydrogels, bio-adhesives microbicides & spermicides.
* Don G. Costar - Inventor, Founder, Nevada Inventors Assoc. 1987 (approximately 54 members currently).
* Norman J. Latker - Pat. Atty., Former Patent Counsel DHEW/NIH & Director Federal Tech. Policy  USDOC.
* Bryan J. Ruffner - Independent Inventor, 7 U.S. Patents (Robotics; Security; Displays).
* Joseph Zappel - Independent Inventor.
* Victoria M. Malia, Esq. - Assoc. Dir., Science and Tech. Ventures, Columbia University (Signing on her own behalf)
* J. Lawrence (Larry) Fox, Ph. D. - CEO, Diagnostics and Medicinals LLC.
* M. Guven Yalcintas, Ph.D. - V.P. Tech Transfer Off. The Research Foundation of  The St. Univ. of New York.
* Professor Douglas Lyon, PhD - Chairman, Computer Engineering Department, Fairfield University