Press Releases

Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13) released the following statement after the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 9, the Innovation Act by a vote of 24-8:

“Sadly, today’s committee markup did nothing to fix the fundamental issues that are troubling our broken patent system.  The so-called ‘Innovation Act’ favors big businesses over small inventors and start-ups.  It will make it too difficult and too risky for small inventors to enforce their rights in court.  Abusive patent litigation is a problem that requires a targeted approach.  Unfortunately, H.R. 9, is overly broad and could potentially weaken every single patent in America.

“H.R. 9 will have unintended consequences that will harm legitimate patent holders.  It will discourage innovation by making it more difficult for small inventors and startups to protect their patents.  And it will not effectively prevent abusive patent litigation.

“Though I appreciate the Chairman’s efforts to address some of the concerns that I have with H.R. 9 in his Manager’s Amendment, it still did not remove several problematic provisions in the underlying bill.

“The majority’s rejection of commonsense and targeted amendments to bring more balance to the deeply flawed ‘Innovation Act’ reaffirmed my opposition to this bill and only showed that the bill is losing critical support in the 114th Congress.”

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In the 113^th Congress, the “Innovation Act” passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 33 – 5.