Who Invented the Atomic Bomb?
Federal funding of science exceeds 70 billion dollars a year–$250 for every man woman and child in the United States. The almost blind acceptance of Establishment Science as the only right way to create inventions and discoveries is based in large part on the Manhattan Project and the invention of the Atomic Bomb. But how [...]
The Myth of Submarine Patents
As far as one can tell, the catchphrase “submarine patent” cropped up for the first time during the propaganda campaign to make the 20 year patent term proposal palatable. When the Democratic Administration was anxious to obtain the vote of the newly elected Republican Senate majority for the GATT Uruguay Round Implementation Act, Mr. Kantor, [...]
A Policy that Punishes American Ingenuity
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Osaka last week, the downsized U.S. negotiating team-the budget crisis kept Bill Clinton in Washington-pursued an international agenda that constituents increasingly mistrust. Seventy percent of Americans now believe that the recent free-trade accords are harming the United States. Boeing’s growing Asian procurement-utterly ignored two years ago when President [...]
Packwood’s Subtler Touch
As the senior Senator from Oregon, Robert Packwood, left the Senate in disgrace, something was missing from his story. Critics had focused on his romantic style. But behind the steamy stuff, there was a far more difficult story of Packwood’s ethics. It’s tied to two diary entries of favors Packwood asked for and favors he [...]
Open Letter to President Clinton from 59 U.S. inventors
Dear President Clinton and Members of Congress: We Represent a cross section of the Inventors and technology entrepreneurs who have made significant contributions to our country’s economic growth, standard of living, health and technological leadership.
The Fax That Came In From the Cold
Uncomfortable truths were revealed at a recent seminar on trade secrets, hosted by the National Intellectual Property Law Institute in Washington, DC. Among them is the extent of corporate espionage carried out against American companies. It is far greater than many companies acknowledge, as publicity can affect stocks, joint ventures and government contracts.
Will we kill the patent system that created Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley used to be cherry and apricot orchards. Today the world knows Silicon Valley as a fountain of high technology. Few of the Fortune 500 companies that symbolize Silicon Valley-Intel, Apple, Silicon Graphics and HP existed 30 years ago. These companies are just the most visible spouts in this fountain of high technology. Silicon [...]
Fast-Track GATT’s Sleight-of-Hand on Patents
GATT’s virtues are woefully tainted by plans to slip in major changes to U.S. patent law via imminent GATT-implementing legislation. Claims from Administration officials and a few Congressional staffers to the contrary, the public and industry have not been properly informed of these changes; there have not been appropriate, serious forums to debate them; and [...]
The Duty of Candor – Revisited
On August 12, 1994, the Congress held a Joint Hearing before the cognizant subcommittees of the Senate and the House concerning the “fast track” GATT intellectual property legislation proposed by the Clinton Administration.
Patents, Ecology and the First Amendment
The role of patent laws plays in encouraging innovation is the same role as the first amendment plays in encouraging open political discussion and thus change: they make it possible to challenge entrenched and powerful established interests. To see this we have to back up and get a broader perspective