POLITICAL ISSUE #601: INADEQUATE TECHNICAL INNOVATION

PRESENT CONDITION: America is losing leadership both in defining innovative technologies and in incorporating those technologies in commercial products to promote human prosperity.

DIRECTION OF IMPROVEMENT: America should promote policies that both encourage technical innovation and remove commercial roadblocks that keep known innovations from being incorporated into commercial products to promote American prosperity.

ISSUE JUSTIFICATION: Technical innovation is the engine of prosperity in the modern world. America's rise to prosperity and world leadership was made possible by a flood of innovations that laid the foundations for American industry. America's economic slowdown since the Second World War is in large part due to the decline in both the rate of American invention and the rate of incorporation of innovation into American products.

AUTHOR: UWSA SANTA CLARA CO EMAIL: humphrey@aimnet.com

OPTIONS FOR ISSUE # 601: INADEQUATE TECHNICAL INNOVATION

REVIEW PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THIS ISSUE

REVIEW CURRENT VOTING RESULTS ON THIS ISSUE

COMMENT ON THIS ISSUE YOURSELF

VOTE ON THIS ISSUE

RETURN TO THIS ISSUE/SOLUTION MENU

CHOOSE ANOTHER CATEGORY 600 ISSUE

SOLUTION DEFINITION STATEMENT
FOR
SOLUTION # 601.1 10% EMPLOYEE INVENTOR PATENT RIGHTS

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Employees may not be required to relinquish all rights to their inventions as a condition of employment. By law an employee shall be entitled to 10% of any royalties received by his employer for his invention. If the employer uses the invention in his own products, the employee shall be entitled to 10% of the net benefits of his invention based on the difference between the enhanced market value of the product and the cost of including the invention. The inventor may have his accountant review the financial records used by the company to compute his 10% share and (if he deems the payment to be too low) may file an appeal with a state agency which shall have the authority to approve or revise the amount of the payment. The inventor shall be entitled to his share for the life of the patent independent of his employment. If the company holding the patent is not making a serious attempt to commercialize the invention, the inventor may appeal to the US Patent Office which shall have the authority to provisionally transfer the patent to the inventor who then must make progress in commercialization. If he also fails to commericalize or license the invention, the Patent Office may declare the invention public domain. The employer shall be barred from any adverse employment action due to an inventor's pursuit of his invention rights.

JUSTIFICATION: Advances in technology which are an important key to promoting American prosperity are in a great many cases being blocked both directly and indirectly by current laws giving employers complete ownership of employee inventions. Lack of any significant financial reward demotivates employees from inventing and encourages creative employees to leave technical work and become managers to achieve higher pay. Corporate control allows companies to suppress inventions that conflict with their business interests and investments and thus deprive America of the enhanced prosperity those inventions could provide.

Giving employee inventors a significant stake in the value of their inventions will encourage more employee inventions and will encourage inventive employees to remain in technical work where they can make the greatest contribution to American prosperity. Requiring companies to either commercialize new inventions or release them to the inventor will reduce the ability of companies to thwart technical innovation by burying inventions that conflict with their business interests.

AUTHOR: UWSA SANTA CLARA CO EMAIL: humphrey@aimnet.com

OPTIONS FOR SOLUTION # 601.1 10% EMPLOYEE INVENTOR PATENT RIGHTS

REVIEW PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THIS SOLUTION

REVIEW CURRENT VOTING RESULTS ON THIS SOLUTION

COMMENT ON THIS SOLUTION YOURSELF

VOTE ON THIS SOLUTION

RETURN TO THIS ISSUE/SOLUTION MENU

PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THIS SOLUTION

---

SOLUTION DEFINITION STATEMENT
FOR
SOLUTION # 601.2 PATENT RIGHTS ON GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:For patents issued under government contracts or subcontracts both the issuing company and the inventor shall be entitled to a 10% royalty on future use of the invention for the life of the patent.

JUSTIFICATION: The current practice of giving the government 100% ownership of inventions on government contracts virtually ensures that little or no innovation will take place. Giving the company and the inventor a share in the royalties still leaves the government with 80% of a much bigger pie and gives the American people much more technical innovation for their tax dollar expenditures.

AUTHOR: UWSA SANTA CLARA CO EMAIL: humphrey@aimnet.com

OPTIONS FOR SOLUTION # 601.2 PATENT RIGHTS ON GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

REVIEW PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THIS SOLUTION

REVIEW CURRENT VOTING RESULTS ON THIS SOLUTION

COMMENT ON THIS SOLUTION YOURSELF

VOTE ON THIS SOLUTION

RETURN TO THIS ISSUE/SOLUTION MENU

PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THIS SOLUTION

---

SOLUTION DEFINITION STATEMENT
FOR
SOLUTION # 601.3 10% GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS TO SMALL ENGINEERING COMPANIES

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Government prime contracts for Research & Development shall specify that 10% of the engineering work be subcontracted to small independently owned engineering companies with less than 25 employees. The government shall have the right to review and revise both the selection of small engineering companies and their work scope under the contract.

JUSTIFICATION: Government R&D contracts are the American peoples' money and they deserve a better return for their R&D investment. Allowing small companies a piece of the R&D pie will stimulate innovation both by these small companies and by the prime contractors who will wish to appear equally innovative. Allowing the government to control both the list of participating small companies and their work scope will help ensure this solution achieves its intended obectives.

AUTHOR: UWSA SANTA CLARA CO EMAIL: humphrey@aimnet.com

OPTIONS FOR SOLUTION # 601.3 10% GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS TO SMALL ENGINEERING COMPANIES

REVIEW PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THIS SOLUTION

REVIEW CURRENT VOTING RESULTS ON THIS SOLUTION

COMMENT ON THIS SOLUTION YOURSELF

VOTE ON THIS SOLUTION

RETURN TO THIS ISSUE/SOLUTION MENU

PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THIS SOLUTION

---

SOLUTION DEFINITION STATEMENT
FOR
SOLUTION # 601.4 PATENT OR RELEASE TO EMPLOYEE INVENTOR IN 6 MONTHS

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Within six months after an employee files an invention disclosure with his/her employer, the employer must either decide to proceed with a patent or release all rights of the disclosed invention to the inventor. Patents must be filed within one year after the original employee disclosure.

JUSTIFICATION: Advances in technology which are an important key to promoting American prosperity are in a great many cases being blocked both directly and indirectly by current laws giving employers complete ownership of employee inventions. Lack of any significant financial reward demotivates employees from inventing and encourages creative employees to leave technical work and become managers to achieve higher pay. Corporate control allows companies to suppress inventions that conflict with their business interests and thus deprive America of the enhanced prosperity those inventions could provide. This patent or release provision is an important element in promoting technical innovation in America's corporations.

AUTHOR: UWSA SANTA CLARA CO EMAIL: humphrey@aimnet.com

OPTIONS FOR SOLUTION # 601.4 PATENT OR RELEASE TO EMPLOYEE INVENTOR IN 6 MONTHS

REVIEW PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THIS SOLUTION

REVIEW CURRENT VOTING RESULTS ON THIS SOLUTION

COMMENT ON THIS SOLUTION YOURSELF

VOTE ON THIS SOLUTION

RETURN TO THIS ISSUE/SOLUTION MENU

PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THIS SOLUTION

---

SOLUTION DEFINITION STATEMENT
FOR
SOLUTION # 601.5 LIMIT PROTECTION OF PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The laws governing proprietary information shall be rewritten to clearly exclude protection that should be more properly covered under the patent laws.

JUSTIFICATION: The patent laws provide 17 years protection for clearly patentable inventions with the requirement that the inventor publically disclose the invention in a manner than can be clearly understood by anyone skilled in the art. This protects the patented invention, but allows society to immediately build on the patented technology. Proprietary information allows a big company to both protect technology that might not even be patentable and to prevent its disclosure to society for many years though their threat of overwhelming legal action. This thwarts the progress of technology and enables existing companies to avoid competition in the markets they wish to control.

AUTHOR: UWSA SANTA CLARA CO EMAIL: humphrey@aimnet.com

OPTIONS FOR SOLUTION # 601.5 LIMIT PROTECTION OF PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

REVIEW PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THIS SOLUTION

REVIEW CURRENT VOTING RESULTS ON THIS SOLUTION

COMMENT ON THIS SOLUTION YOURSELF

VOTE ON THIS SOLUTION

RETURN TO THIS ISSUE/SOLUTION MENU

PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THIS SOLUTION

---