URGENT ALERT!

EAGLE FORUM CAPITOL ALERT -- August 1, 1999

Don't Fall for Phony "Patent Reform

EMERGENCY ALERT FROM PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY AND EAGLE FORUM. ACTION URGENTLY NEEDED BEFORE NOON ON MONDAY AUGUST 2 by all who care about constitutional rights and America's future. Help us stop Congress from giving away the rights of independent inventors.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, July 30, after most offices had closed for the weekend, Rep. Howard Coble took the Patent bill, H.R. 1907 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.01907:), away from Rep. Dan Burton (who was going to hold hearings), dropped out Title VI, gave the bill a new number, H.R. 2654, referred it to the Judiciary Committee, got it out of Judiciary, and placed it number-three on the Suspension Calendar for Monday, August 2.

This is a sneaky way to pass the bill without the American people knowing about it until it is too late. Why can't the American people have advance notice that such an important bill is to be voted on? Why don't we have a chance to voice our opinions publicly about the dangers lurking in the bill before it is rushed to a vote?

Why was it put on suspension of the rules, which precludes floor debate on specifics of the bill and means it can't be amended? Is Mr. Coble afraid of amendments? Is he afraid of a floor debate on the dangers of the bill?

Doing this deed at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, and prearranging to have his own letter to the editor in favor of the new bill printed in a Washington, D.C. newspaper on Saturday morning, was an underhanded method of precluding any debate, ad or news story about the bill. This is not the way our government should work.

This bill is called the American Inventors Protection Act, but should be called the Inventors Elimination Act. The independent inventors would be squeezed out and their inventions stolen from them, all for the benefit of the foreigners and the giant corporations.

Who is behind this Patent bill? This bill is a blatant attempt by the Clinton Administration and the Democrats in Congress to legislate a deal made by Ron Brown with the Japanese Ambassador and with the Chinese who were providing political money for Clinton's reelection. This is also a blatant attempt by Republicans to pay off the multinational corporations who have donated so much political hard and soft money.

We urgently need your help to defeat this terrible bill by calling your Member of Congress over the weekend or the very first thing Monday morning. Powerful special-interests are determined to change (in the phony name of "reform") our enormously successful patent system, the keystone of America's technological superiority and economic success.

America has produced more major inventions than all the rest of the world combined. This is because our Founding Fathers set up the U.S. Patent Office to protect the constitutional right of independent inventors to the "exclusive" ownership of their inventions for a limited number of years, after which the inventions belong to the public.

Phony "reform" of the U.S. system is aggressively sought not only by the foreigners, whose motive is to steal U.S. intellectual property, but also by the multinationals that want to control all innovation. If you are DaimlerChrysler or IBM, for example, you certainly don't want an independent inventor working in his garage to develop a new product that you don't control and which might cut in on your market share.

A lot of lies are being told about this bill. You will be told that it's very different from the Omnibus ("Ominous") Patent bill that Congress refused to pass last year. Don't be fooled. It's not very different, it's only slightly different. The bill's wording has changed a little, but the goal of the sponsors remains the same. Even more important, the backers of this bill plan to restore all the bad stuff when it goes to the Conference committee.

You will be told that the 25 Nobel Laureates, who signed a remarkable joint letter opposing last year's bill, have changed their views. That's a lie. It says: "It will prove very damaging to American small inventors and thereby discourage the flow of new inventions that have contributed so much to America's superior performance in the advancement of science and technology." The burden of proof is on Mr. Coble to prove that his current bill has eliminated all the objections that the Nobel Laureates made to last year's bill, and he hasn't met that burden. Milton Friedman (one of the Nobel Laureates) wrote Dana Rohrabacher, telling him, "you have been taking my name in vain in connection with the patent reform bill."

You may be told that Phyllis Schlafly has approved this bill. That's a lie. I oppose it and believe it is the most dangerous bill in the current Congress.

You will hear that the new bill is OK because Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is for it, and he was a big opponent of the bill in the last session. The fact is that Dana is the one who has changed.

The chief argument we hear in behalf of patent "reform" legislation is that we should "harmonize" with other countries. But why should America harmonize with unsuccessful systems? Let other countries harmonize with us!

Title II of this bad bill will undermine the rights of independent inventors by providing for "prior user rights." This will enable corporations to claim a "prior use right" and thereby steal the independent inventor's constitutional right to "exclusive" ownership of his discovery.

Title V, which allows third parties to participate in an expanded reexamination process, gives infringers the opportunity to delay an inventor's effective use of his patent rights. Because it will encourage litigation, it should be called the "patent lawyers' full employment act."

Information available at www.eagleforum.org includes the important letter from the 25 Nobel Laureates, Phyllis Schlafly's other articles, a strong letter from MRI inventor Dr. Raymond Damadian, an excellent article by national security expert Frank Gaffney, and links to a letter from Hawaii Governor Benjamin Cayetano.

Please phone (202-225-3121), fax, or email your Member of Congress immediately and ask him to vote NO on this phony Patent bill, which is due to be voted on Monday, August 2. Also call Speaker Denny Hastert (202-225-2976, e-mail: dhastert@mail.house.gov), Majority Leader Dick Armey (202-225-7772, e-mail: N/A), and Majority Whip Tom DeLay ( 202-225-5951, e-mail: http://www.house.gov/writerep/).

Further information may be found at Patent Rights Page : http://eagleforum.org/patent/index.html

House E-mail:
http://eagleforum.org/alert/house-info.html

Contacting Congress - Great site for congressional contact information:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

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