Patent-reform legislation would usher out U.S. jobs

Copyright © 2008, The Columbus Dispatch

Saturday, March 8, 2008 3:08 AM

Judging from last week's debate between the two top Democratic candidates for president, the 5,000-pound elephant in the room was the North American Free Trade Agreement. As this year's presidential contest heats up, once again the polls show that voters rank economic concerns as a top priority. This is especially true in Ohio, where we've seen the loss of 257,600 manufacturing jobs since 2000.

There is much talk about fixing the consequences of NAFTA by amending NAFTA to promote fairness to American workers or opting out of NAFTA. But while the debate on how to correct NAFTA continues, there's a move afoot in Congress to enact so-called patent-reform legislation. The House of Representatives approved House Resolution 1908 last summer, and currently Senate Bill 1145 is under consideration in the Senate. This so-called patent reform will set up a one-way magic carpet for U.S. jobs and technology to fly to Bangladesh and Beijing.

As we've seen with NAFTA, this issue started life as a misguided solution, with politicians alleging a problem existed. The measure purports to harmonize U.S. patent laws with the rest of the world, but it actually reduces U.S. standards of patent protections, inviting foreign nations to plunder U.S. intellectual property with impunity. And it does so while undermining the kinds of innovation and creativity our political leaders say America must cultivate in order to compete globally.

The solution that Congress crafted carries with it a multitude of problems that supporters of patent reform would prefer to ignore. Most important, it would undermine innovation and destroy the last vestiges of U.S.-based manufacturing jobs that remain.

For further proof of that concern, consider the words of China's top authority on intellectual property, Yongshun Chen, a former judge in Beijing's high court, who observed that the bill would "weaken the right of patentees greatly, increase their burden and reduce remedies for infringement." In short, he said, the bill would "make it less costly to infringe."

A study by former Undersecretary of Commerce Robert Shapiro and Dr. Apama Mathur, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, concluded the very same. They said: "The measure would make patents harder to secure, easier to invalidate and cheaper to infringe. The net effects will reduce the value of patents and the intellectual property they represent, dampening R&D and the consequent pace of innovation in the United States."

On the strength of that evidence, 14 major labor organizations -- steelworkers, machinists, communications workers and a long list of building trades unions -- have lodged their own concerns about the bill with their senators, noting:

"The last seven years have witnessed an unprecedented decline in the international trade position of the United States. Our nation's trade deficit continues to sap our economic strength. Some 3 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared, wages have been stagnant or falling, income inequality has grown and scores of communities across this nation have been devastated. We need to enact reforms to reverse this decline, not contribute to it"

Ohio has been a casualty of NAFTA's consequences. This pending patent-reform legislation will serve only to add insult to injury for our already-decimated manufacturing sector. In the interest of preserving the remaining manufacturing jobs that exist in Ohio, we must urge our lawmakers to oppose this patent-reform legislation.

WILLIAM BURGA
Past president

Ohio AFL-CIO

Westerville

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