Press Release

For Immediate Release
January 9, 2025

Washington, D.C. – As Congress plays a crucial role in shaping the policies that impact all Americans, it has a vital responsibility to appoint leaders who ensure fairness and efficiency in the legislative process. Committee chairs, especially in the House of Representatives, wield tremendous influence over policy development and its progress toward becoming law.

America faces its most critical moment in history, with China dominating 37 of 44 critical technologies, posing a serious threat to our economic and national security. At the heart of this crisis lies a broken patent system that undermines innovation and entrepreneurial growth.

In this context, the nomination of Congressman Darrell Issa as the next IP Subcommittee Chair is deeply concerning. His track record reveals a pattern of supporting policies that benefit powerful corporations and foreign competitors, including China, rather than protecting American innovators and entrepreneurs.

Issa’s history includes:

• America Invents Act (2011): Supported a system that forces patent holders into a flawed administrative court, where 84% of patents are invalidated, often to the benefit of large corporations.
• Innovation Act (2015): Backed a bill that would have made it easier for corporations to infringe on smaller competitors’ patents.
• CLEAR Patents Act (2022) and PARTS Act (2017): Proposed measures that would allow foreign companies, including those controlled by China, to challenge patents more easily.
• Disparaging innovators by calling universities “patent trolls.”

Under Issa’s leadership, the U.S. patent system has been weakened, empowering foreign competitors and crippling American startups. His nomination as IP Subcommittee Chair sends a troubling message that corporate interests and foreign adversaries like China are prioritized over the entrepreneurial spirit that drives America.

At a time when America must outpace China in critical technologies, the nomination of Darrell Issa threatens to stifle innovation, suppress patent rights, and destroy the foundations of American entrepreneurship.

Media Contact: Taylor McCray, e: twmmedia@outlook.com, c: 713-542-7448

Link to pdf: https://usinventor.org/wp-content/uploads/Darrell-Issa-Press-Release.pdf