Iowa State Senator Jeff Danielson recently wrote a piece on patent policy

Innovation is the lifeblood of a prosperous economy. Iowa’s recent economic performance, where improvements in agriculture and manufacturing have allowed us to weather the storm of a national recession and keep our overall unemployment rate below the national average, are the result of a culture of productivity and improvement fueled by innovation often protected by patents. Let’s continue this path to prosperity by rejecting H.R. 9, the Innovation Act, and S.1137, the PATENT Act.

Sound patent policy, which encourages the nexus between risk and ideas (especially for small entrepreneurs), makes invention profitable. In Iowa, many of our best ideas begin small and grow allowing us the opportunity to dream and then make those dreams a reality. The U.S. patent system enables that dream by protecting the market an invention creates long enough for the inventor to gain a toehold against competition, and by creating a property right capable of attracting critical investment to bring the invention to market and grow the business.

Many of the provisions in H.R. 9 and S.1137 skew the patent system towards big business, which will harm the ability of small entrepreneurs to take an idea and make it a reality, and importantly we all will miss the opportunity of creating new jobs. Think of all the successful businesses that have benefited Iowa, many started on a farm, in a garage or small shop with nothing but an idea combined with sweat and determination. Don’t let H.R. 9 or S.1137 kill this can do American spirit of innovation.

Read the full article at IPWatchDog.