Congressman Doug Collins addresses the inventors

On Wednesday, September 11, 2019, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of the 18th District of Texas and Representative Doug Collins of the 9th District of Georgia made an appearance at US Inventor’s congressional briefing, expressing their support of inventor rights. Twenty-nine inventors from twenty-one different states were in attendance, each a member or founder of a prominent inventor organization.

Attendees included: Don Skaggs, President of the Inventors Network of Kentucky, Richard Waters, President of the Tennessee Inventors Association, James Stevens, President of Music City Inventors, Laura Myers, President of the Inventors Association of Arizona, Dr. James Lindsey, Legislative Liason of the Inventors Association of Arizona, Keith Shuman, Board Member of the Inventors Association of Arizona, Jim Slaughter, President of the Inventors Forum of Orange County, Ruth Young, delegate from the San Diego Inventors Forum, Matt Stieg, President of Edison Innovators Association of Florida, Shervin Ahmady, Founder of the Southeastern Inventors Association, Steve Lyon, President of the Inventors Network of Minnesota, Jeff Hardin, delegate from the Houston Inventors Association, Sam Wechsler, President of the Capital District Inventors Group of New York, Jeffrey Mangus, President of the West Virginia Inventors Association, Andrea Hence Evans, Board Member of the United Inventors Association, Rita Compton, Founder of Inventors Roundtable of Colorado, Cindy Duncan, member of Inventors Roundtable of Colorado, Daniel Braisted, Founder of Vegas Inventors, Warren Tuttle, President of the United Inventors Association, George Peters, Founder of Made in America Kettle Pizza, Chris Landano, President of Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club of Queen’s, Oren Gall, Vice President of the Pittsburgh Inventors Club, Frank Morosky, President of the Iowa Inventors Group, Don O’Brien, President of the Illinois Innovators and Inventors, Cheri Renee, President of the Inventors Association of St. Louis, Jan Heazler, President of the Southwest Missouri Inventors Network, John Hopkins, Chairman of the Michigan Inventors Coalition, Josh Malone, volunteer with US Inventor, and Randy Landreneau, President of US Inventor. In total, around 10,000 inventors were represented at the gathering.

Rep. Lee and Rep. Collins,

Thank you for taking some of your precious time on September 11 to show the inventors of America that you care about their plight and are standing up to restore the US patent system for their sake, the sake of the country, and truly the world. We understand that you are asked to be four places at one time and we are honored that you chose to be with us.

You understand that the unintended consequences of recent legislation has not just eroded, but negated patent rights for inventors. The leaders you spoke to on Wednesday represent thousands of inventors and can honestly say that the inventors of America thank you. Every week, we see another handful of inventors lose their creative idea, their property rights, their businesses, and their hope because they believed in patent rights as guaranteed by the USPTO, but were stolen from handily by large companies using the Patent Trial and Appeal Board as their weapon. The courts have upheld this injustice, so we have no other recourse than you, the honorable law makers. You are answering our plea.

Representative Lee, your pledge to work directly with inventors in legislation that most affects inventors gives us hope.  Your commitment to helping underrepresented people, including inventors, makes you the perfect advocate. Your heart to return to a Constitutional system in which ideas can be protected and thus shared for the benefit of society is what we all need.

Representative Collins, your understanding of the value of one’s God-given creativity makes you the perfect advocate to take up the cause of restoring intellectual property. Your advice on how to get other lawmakers to understand the desperate plight of inventors has been taken to heart and will be applied.

If you’ve wondered whether your job and all the difficulties which ensue are worth it, the inventors of America are here to say that it is. Your work can help restore our once-great patent system. You, like our Founding Fathers, seem to really understand that the fruit of one’s mind is what moves technology, medicine.. really everything forward, and that it would be in everyone’s best interest for the government to once again guarantee that right. Again, we thank you.

Gratefully, The Inventors