Posts in China

The PTAB: China’s Silent but Deadly Weapon in Its Economic War Against America

Of the many ways that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) works to the detriment of the U.S. innovation economy, one of the most nefarious is the Chinese government’s use of patent validity review to advance its national interests. Recent briefing filed at the PTAB suggests that the Board is quietly helping China win the war for technological supremacy during the 21st century, mainly by destroying the economic interests of American small businesses innovating in industrial sectors critical to American national security.

ITIF White Paper Advocates for Greater Federal Tax Credits to Keep U.S. Ahead of China in R&D

Today, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) published a white paper titled Innovation Wars: How China Is Gaining on the United States in Corporate R&D showing that, while the United States continues to enjoy a lead in several key sectors when surveying the world’s largest corporate investors in research and development (R&D), its largest economic rival is gaining and could achieve parity with the U.S. in about a decade.

ITIF Releases Report Pushing Back on ‘Progressive Anti-IP’ Claims

Earlier this week, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a report that offers a rebuttal to nine claims it identifies with the “anti-IP progressive orthodoxy.” Prominent progressive senators, including Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), have turned up the heat on pharmaceutical companies’ drug pricing and IP policies. While members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have criticized big pharma, the ITIF report identifies other “anti-IP advocates” to rebut including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public Knowledge, Joe Stiglitz, Dean Baker, and Arjun Jayadev. The ITIF report promotes the narrative that intellectual property rights are foundational to the United States as a nation and economy. However, the ITIF argues that anti-IP advocates are trying to persuade the Biden administration to move away from this traditional position.

Witnesses and House IP Subcommittee Members Skeptical About Extending TRIPS IP Waiver

The House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet today held a hearing titled “IP and Strategic Competition with China: Part II – Prioritizing U.S. Innovation Over Assisting Foreign Adversaries,” which focused on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) agreement on a waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 vaccine technologies under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) last June. All of the panelists agreed that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency and that an extension of the waiver to diagnostics and therapeutics is likely unnecessary.

USTR’s Special 301 Report Says China’s Improvement on IP Has Slowed

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual Special 301 Report on April 26, adding two countries to the “Watch List”: Bulgaria and Belarus. In total, there are now 29 countries on either the Priority Watch List or Watch List, up from 27 last year. Belarus was added because it passed a law that “legalized unlicensed use of certain copyrighted works if the right holder is from a foreign state ‘committing unfriendly actions.’” This includes the U.S. sanctions imposed on Belarus for its support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “

Pro-Patent Panel Tells Senate IP Subcommittee It’s Time for a Better IP Strategy

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held a hearing today featuring a panel of patent-savvy witnesses to underscore the crucial role intellectual property plays in the U.S. economy and to define the biggest threats to IP rights, both foreign and domestic. The conclusion of most panelists as to what one step is most important in reestablishing the United States as an IP powerhouse was that we need to clean up our own IP system at home in order to even begin addressing threats from foreign competitors like China.