Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts The Geopolitics of U.S. Patent Law

The Geopolitics of U.S. Patent Law

  • December 2, 2016

Since the inception of intellectual property protection, Patent Law has always been a matter of national sovereignty, with each nation traditionally setting its own standards for what is protected, how long protection lasts, and the penalties for infringement. Beginning in the 1990s, however, lobbying groups have been pushing Congress to “harmonize” U.S. Patent Law with those of other nations, and in recent years, this has resulted in sweeping changes that have invalidated large percentages of patents, especially in the computer and biotechnology fields. In this talk, Lawrence Husick, FPRI’s resident technology “geek” and a registered patent lawyer, will discuss the economic and geopolitical forces that have conspired to rob U.S. inventors of their preeminent position in the world’s technology race, and what might be done to reverse this erosion to restore technical leadership to U.S. inventors. Husick is co-Director of FPRI’s Teaching Innovation Project.

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The Geopolitics of U.S. Patent Law