3 days Ago
Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here . ••• Modern Minnesota was built on innovation, from refrigerated trucks and Post-it notes to Spam — the tasty kind, not the kind threatening to clog your email.
For your inbox problem, you’ll want to check out the tech from Securence, a leading spam-filtering and cybersecurity company based in Minnetonka. When it comes to discoveries and inventions, Minnesota ranks among the Top 10 American states — with more than six patents for every 10,000 residents. It is also home to 17 Fortune 500 companies, the fourth most in the nation by population.
At the heart of the incentive to innovate is intellectual property protections. Patent rights ensure that inventors reap the rewards of their discoveries — the result of untold hours of toiling away, setbacks and money. Yet because of court rulings and policies coming out of Washington, the innovation ecosystem that has contributed so much to the prosperity of this great state is now in danger.
Congress needs to step in now to end this threat. The North Star State ranks in the Top 10 states for patent activity across 17 sectors. Its status as an innovation hub spans many industries — from Medical Alley, the world’s leading health technology cluster, to industry giants like IBM and 3M, whose product lines and R&D support great jobs in and out of Minnesota.
Nationwide, IP-driven industries contribute nearly $8 trillion in gross domestic product and support more than 47 million jobs. Firms are able to make investments of time, personnel and money in new and unproven technologies because they have confidence that patents protect their products from copycats. But right now, patent protections are under attack on multiple fronts.
One of these threats involves legal loopholes that are making it much easier to challenge patents. Another problem stems from the fact that the Supreme Court has narrowed the range of inventions eligible for patents in a number of key technologies. In 2011, Congress enacted a law that created a new tribunal at the U.
S. Patent and Trademark Office to streamline patent challenges. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was intended to provide a more efficient alternative to the federal court system for patent owners and patent challengers to resolve their disputes.
In practice, the PTAB has become a forum for large companies — particularly in the tech sector — to weaponize their financial and legal resources against smaller competitors. Under current rules, big corporations can file multiple challenges to a single patent at both the PTAB and in federal court. These duplicative challenges wear small businesses down and force them to divert valuable resources away from R&D.
Meanwhile, a series of misguided Supreme Court rulings decreed certain categories of high-tech inventions ineligible for patents. These decisions have stifled progress in industries crucial to Minnesota’s economy — such as medical technology and advanced computer software. In the five years following the rulings, eligibility concerns led to the abandonment of some 1,300 patent applications.
In response to these ongoing threats, state industry leaders, like 3M’s chief legal officer, Kevin Rhodes, have sounded the alarm, warning that “patent enforcement has become more costly, protracted and uncertain for patent holders.” If we allow the current confusion and abuse to continue, Minnesota’s standing as an international leader in innovation could erode. Thankfully, Congress has the power to fix these problems and is now considering two bipartisan bills that would make a big difference.
The Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act would address the imbalances in the PTAB system, leveling the playing field so that smaller players have a fair chance to defend their patents against large, well-funded corporations. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) would clarify that inventions are indeed eligible for patent in areas the Supreme Court closed down based on its narrow reading of existing law. PERA would assure researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and the courts that transformational technologies like rapid blood tests and AI-integrated software are indeed eligible for patent protection and are once again safe to invest in.
Minnesotans should rally behind these reforms to ensure that it remains a state where innovation can thrive. Minnesota’s congressional delegation can help safeguard both Minnesota’s economy and America’s technological competitiveness by lending their support to these bipartisan bills. By passing both PREVAIL and PERA, we can provide the clarity and fairness that inventors need to bring their breakthroughs to market.
Gary Locke is a former U.S. ambassador to China, former U.
S. secretary of commerce and former governor of Washington..
