American Innovation Thrives with Reliability, Certainty, and Rule of Law

The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity, along with 22 other free market groups, recently signed onto a letter to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, expressing our strong support for the important changes that the current leadership of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has made over the past three years to bolster patent reliability and to promote the rule of law. Read the full letter here.

We specifically commended USPTO Director Andrei Iancu for his demonstrated commitment to upholding the protections afforded to American inventors as enshrined in the Constitution.

In the letter, we wrote, “American innovation, just like the industries and economic growth it supports, cannot prosper in an environment of uncertainty. Fortunately, Director Iancu’s contributions over the past few years to reforming America’s patent system have begun to provide our innovation economy newfound certainty and predictability.”

Our coalition noted that Director Iancu has made important tailored improvements to the operations of the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB), an administrative adjudicatory body with the power to invalidate issued patents. We also applauded reforms that limit patent infringers’ and speculators’ ability to game the system, which renders patents more reliable.

It is important to protect America’s patent system, and Director Iancu’s reforms are integral to American investment in job creation and innovation. Thus, in the letter, we advocated for Congress to defend the many strides the Trump administration has taken to reform the patent system.