Letter: Vote down legislation harmful to innovation

As the founder and chief executive officer of a product design and manufacturing company, helping inventors succeed is at the heart of our business.

I recently learned of legislation in Congress that could harm Iowa's small inventors and entrepreneurs. This legislation - the Senate's PATENT Act (S. 1137) and the House's Innovation Act (H.R. 9) - would amend our nation's patent system to make protecting patents an excessively convoluted and prohibitively expensive battle for legitimate innovators.

Several provisions put forth in the bills, including a loser pays fee-shifting regime, heightened pleading requirements and a customer stay provision, would effectively leave innovators without remedy when defending their intellectual property rights. They would be at the mercy of multinational corporations that seemingly have little interest in respecting patent rights or paying for these innovations.

I have seen firsthand the existing hurdles small inventors must overcome to succeed. Adding more obstacles to an already uphill battle would be detrimental for Iowa's most creative and innovative citizens. I ask the Iowa delegation to consider the very real and negative consequences of this legislation. We must support Iowa's small inventors, entrepreneurs, and our state's economic health by keeping the patent system strong.

Gerald Beranek

Cedar Rapids

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