Innovation Alliance Member Executives Outline How Bill Provisions Would Damage U.S. Innovation Leadership and International Competitiveness

Washington, D.C. - Innovation Alliance member executives joined their counterparts from the manufacturing and biotechnology industries in a series of meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss the likely harmful effect a patent system overhaul Congress is considering would have on patent-dependent businesses like theirs.

Bill Jones, the chairman of Cummins-Allison [Mt. Prospect, IL], a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of high-tech currency processing and counterfeit detection equipment, was among the delegation. At a press briefing, Jones told key Senate staff, "For over a hundred years, our success has been based on offering customers innovative products. We invest millions each year to develop new products, which in-turn provides high paying research and manufacturing jobs. If Congress weakens U.S. patent laws, our competitors abroad will steal our technology and destroy the jobs we create. It's that simple."

Richard Faubert, the president and CEO of AmberWave Systems [Salem, NH] -- a leader in the research, development and licensing of advanced technologies for semiconductor manufacturing, said, "Research and development is the lifeblood of innovation. AmberWave Systems provides a bridge between promising research within universities and commercialization of the results of that research. We depend on strong patent laws to do that. Weakening the patent system will mean less of the amazing discoveries being made at our nation's publicly-funded universities will ever reach consumers."

Though the Patent Reform Act of 2007, passed the U.S. House by a margin narrower than expected; growing opposition from industry, labor and academia, makes Senate approval questionable. "Strong patents are a cornerstone of U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. The legislation under consideration wouldn't improve patents, it would erode them. That's something that Cummins-Allison and thousands of other innovative companies across America can't afford to have happen," Jones concluded.