2 days Ago
Connecticut has the highest per-capita GDP in the nation. And it’s a top-five state for business, according to U.S.
News & World Report. Thanks to our culture of empowering startups and inventors, Connecticut has birthed numerous history-making technologies, including the helicopter, anesthesia, and the polaroid camera. However, three bipartisan bills in Congress will determine whether Connecticut’s best economic days are behind us — or if they’re still to come.
The bills would strengthen intellectual property protections, which are the foundation for much of Connecticut’s economy. Patents, which protect an inventor’s exclusive rights to their creation for a limited period of time, allow small companies to compete against larger, more established incumbents. They also encourage investors to fund the development of promising but unproven technologies.
I’ve seen firsthand how strong patents drive technological progress here in Connecticut. Take New Haven’s Biohaven Pharmaceuticals and its treatment for migraines, or Alexion with its medicines to treat seven rare diseases. As the managing director of Yale University’s Office of Cooperative Research for 25 years, I helped numerous Yale scientists patent their inventions and license them to startups, which then invest millions in an effort to turn those good ideas into real-world products.
More than 75 of those companies settled in New Haven, ensuring that the work being done in Yale’s laboratories contributed directly to our state’s productivity. Such patenting, licensing, and commercialization catalyze economic growth across the Constitution State. Connecticut ranks fifth in the nation in patents granted per capita.
Many of our largest industries, such as advanced manufacturing, software development, and bioscience, are among the sectors most dependent on patent rights. Overall, intellectual property-intensive industries account for one in every three Connecticut jobs. That’s why passing the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, the PREVAIL Act, and the IDEA Act — all of which would strengthen patent rights — is critical for Connecticut’s economy.
The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, or PERA, would clear up some legal ambiguities that are currently stifling innovation in cutting-edge technologies like medical diagnostic tests and artificial intelligence algorithms. In recent years, courts have overturned many patents in these fields on vague and subjective grounds, causing inventors and investors to become apprehensive about high-tech R&D. By restoring patent eligibility in these fields and establishing clear eligibility criteria, PERA would spark greater investment in the technologies that will define our future.
The PREVAIL Act would fix another critical obstacle for innovators by closing loopholes at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), a bureaucratic body that adjudicates patent validity. Current rules at the PTAB allow large companies to overwhelm smaller ones with repeated and duplicative patent challenges, suppressing competition. PREVAIL would make common-sense reforms to level the legal playing field and give innovative small businesses a fair chance to defend their intellectual property.
Finally, the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement Act, or IDEA Act, would help close the demographic gaps that currently exist in patenting. For instance, studies indicate that women receive only 12.8% of patents — meaning that their contributions to innovation are largely untapped.
To solve this, the IDEA Act would allow the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to collect voluntary demographic information from patent applicants.
The data could then inform legislative efforts to include all Americans — and Connecticuters — in the patenting process. All three of these bills would have direct benefits for Connecticut. PERA’s patent eligibility reforms would spur massive investment into some of Connecticut’s strongest industries — including software development and biotechnology.
The PREVAIL Act’s changes to the PTAB would protect innovative small businesses and startups, such as those I helped launch at Yale, so that research being done here in Connecticut can continue adding to our local economy. And data collected by the IDEA Act would help Connecticut leaders ensure that our state’s culture of innovation encompasses our increasingly diverse population. However, to reap their benefits, our state’s leaders will need to take an active role in enacting these bills.
I commend U.S. Sen.
Richard Blumenthal on his recent vote to pass the IDEA Act out of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Senator Blumenthal’s continued support will be especially vital in shepherding PERA and PREVAIL through committee and bringing all three of these important pieces of legislation through Congress as a whole. PERA, PREVAIL, and IDEA hold the keys to Connecticut’s economic future.
We can’t let this opportunity pass us by. Our congressional delegation must pass these bills as soon as possible. Jon Soderstrom served as managing director of the Office of Cooperative Research at Yale University from 1996-2021.
.
