Homegrown Innovation

Center for American Progress - CAP Event with Undersecretary of Commerce David Kappos on Job Creation and Innovation. Kappos detailed how the USPTO can play a vital role in fostering a robust, competitive economy. He focused on the importance of strengthening patent protection, increasing efficiency in the patent application process, and fostering innovation in crucial sectors of the economy such as green technology.

Kappos argued that a system that strongly protects and enforces patents forms the bedrock of the United States’ economic growth. This approach encourages inventors, researchers, and businesses to create the kinds of innovations that give rise to new businesses and new jobs. “The economic success of the United States is deeply rooted in the history of American innovation,” said Kappos. And if we don’t adamantly protect intellectual property, our overseas competitors will appropriate, and perhaps even misappropriate, ideas, research, and technologies born within the United States in order to compete against us. This lapse in protection of intellectual property could spell the loss of untold numbers of domestic jobs.

When Kappos was sworn in to his position, he found himself confronted with an enormous backlog of patent applications left over from the previous administration. Due to the pressing need for more jobs in the current economic recession, Kappos is making efficiency a top goal at the USPTO, saying, “Reducing that backlog is one of my highest priorities” and that “the backlog of more than 700,000 patent applications stands as a barrier to innovation and economic growth.”