If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it: Protecting the Power of American Innovation

The rules governing who owns an idea, and who benefits from it, are being debated in real time.

This week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet will convene to tackle one of the most consequential questions facing our free market: how do we protect intellectual property?

It’s a question worth taking seriously. IP is the cornerstone of the free market. Without it, we would not have the innovative treatments, technologies, and cures Americans depend on today. Our Founding Fathers understood this, which is why they enshrined IP rights into Article I of the Constitution. Protecting those rights now is how we ensure the breakthroughs of tomorrow have a chance to reach patients.

Innovation requires investment, risk, and certainty. Developers of new treatments must know that their work will be protected if they are going to commit the time, money, and resources necessary to bring new cures to market. At the same time, IP policy must strike the right balance, safeguarding innovation and encouraging competition. Get that balance right, investment follows. Get it wrong, incentive to innovate disappears.

That is why misguided proposals like the Eliminating Thickets to Increase Competition Act (ETHIC) threaten to do more harm than good. By weakening existing patent protections, Congress risks undermining future investment in the very treatments Americans are counting on. Chipping away at our patent system does not open the door to competition; rather, it closes the door on innovation.

The stakes are too high to get this wrong. Upholding strong IP rights is how we ensure American innovators keep leading the world, and patients continue to benefit from the latest, most effective treatments. As we head toward this week’s hearing, lawmakers should remember that the strength of our IP system today will help determine the cures available to patients tomorrow.