Innovation Act

Floor Speech

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chairwoman, I thank the gentleman from Virginia.

When we look at the cost, not just of litigation, but of companies having to consult with lawyers at times because of completely frivolous letters that they get that are vague with regard to what the abuses are, the damage is not only to the company that receives the message; the damage is to all consumers. The extra price is simply passed along to all of us who use goods and services in a digital economy. This bill makes an important step forward for bringing our patent process into the 21st century, taking into account digital innovation.

There is a long way to go. When our patent system was first put together for mechanical innovation, for which it still works, people didn't even know what software or biological innovation was. We have come a long way. I think we have learned a lot over that time. One thing we have learned is that we need to fine-tune how software and digital innovation interact with our intellectual property protections.

This bill takes an important step in this direction. While it doesn't wholly fix our patent system, it will undeniably deter abusive patent suits that are brought by patent entities and trolls that raise prices for consumers, destroy jobs, are particularly onerous on start-up businesses and entrepreneurs, and have essentially a tax across our entire economy on innovation and job growth.

I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I appreciate the good work of Representative Goodlatte and Representative Lofgren in bringing this bill to us on the floor today.

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Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I am thankful for Chairman Goodlatte and his staff and the committee for their work on this bill and increasing demand letter transparency in both the committee mark and working with us on the floor to incorporate a bipartisan amendment that we were able to work on with Representatives CONNOLLY, CHAFFETZ, and MARINO that builds upon the language in the bill.

Very simply, our amendment would ensure that trolls can no longer hide behind shell companies to conceal their true identity from demand letter recipients. Our amendment is a step in the right direction in providing businesses and entrepreneurs the tools to better assess the validity of demand letters.

I do have a comprehensive bill, along with Representatives MARINO and DEUTCH, that moves further in that direction that we introduced 2 weeks ago, and our bill would clarify that the FTC has the authority to go after patent trolls.

As we move to enhance the value of demand letter transparency, I am pleased that Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Terry, a few minutes ago, expressed the intent of the committee to further examine this issue. And this amendment is an important step in the right direction.

I urge my colleagues to support the Polis-Connolly-Chaffetz-Marino amendment and reserve the balance of my time.

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