Washington, Jun 1, 2011 - Today, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) expressed their opposition to H.R. 1249, the America Invents Act, citing constitutional concerns and listing several provisions they consider detrimental to American innovation and harm the average inventors ability to secure patents. The lawmakers were joined by two former House Judiciary Committee Chairmen, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) to unveil a letter signed by 50 bipartisan Members, addressed to the House Rules Committee, requesting time for the constitutionality of the bill to be adequately debated.

“If H.R. 1249 is passed into law, we will have weaker protections for our inventors and we can expect American innovation to be easily stolen not only domestically but by foreign entities overseas,” said Rohrabacher. “Perhaps the worst aspect of this bill, that hurts the American people the most, is the harmonization of our laws with those internationally in terms of the fundamental way we issue patents.

“The bottom line is this,” Rohrabacher stated. “In our Constitution, the words make it very clear that the original inventor should be the one who receives the patent, not the global standard of whoever files first. That would be very damaging to American innovators and would change the way we do business.”

According to the House Committee on Rules, if a threshold of 50 Member signatures is reached “in a letter addressed to the Chair of the Committee on Rules requesting a separate period of debate to discuss the constitutionality of a measure considered under a rule, the Chair shall include such a period of separate debate, not to exceed 20 minutes, evenly divided and controlled between a Member specified in the letter and a Member defending the committee position.”

Reps. Rohrabacher and Kaptur also called for H.R. 1249 to be rejected outright by the House of Representatives and replaced with a bill that straightens out the current mess of backlogs, delays, and inadequate funding at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Lawmakers expressed concerns that several of the bill’s provisions are not only unconstitutional, but a “jobs-killer” that harms the main source of new jobs in the economy, small businesses and start-ups. In its current form, H.R. 1249 greatly increases costs on the “little guy” inventors seeking patents making it a cost prohibitive venture in many cases and increases the likelihood any patents that are granted will be infringed upon and subsequently tied up for years in the bureaucracy under the new procedures.

In addition to Reps. Rohrabacher (R-CA), Kaptur (D-OH), Conyers (D-MI), Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Manzullo (R-IL), Kevin Kearns from the U.S. Business and Industry Council, patent expert David Boundy, and constitutional scholars Jonathan Massey and Adam Mossoff, also participated in the press conference.

H.R. 1249 is expected to be brought for a vote later this month.

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