Open Letter From Conservative Leaders: Economic Competitiveness and the Defense of Intellectual Property

Over the last few decades, we have seen America lose its global status as a manufacturing powerhouse. Millions of jobs have moved to China, Mexico, India and elsewhere, turning too many American communities into ghost towns. Harmful regulatory policies, high corporate taxes, and trade cheating have all contributed to this harmful trend.

Not only have we ceded ground to much of the world on manufacturing, but harmful policies and an increased hostility to our nation’s Intellectual Property foundations have undermined American leadership in innovation and technology. According to U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s International IP Index this year, the US has dropped from 1st to 10th place (tied with Hungary) in the protection of “patents, related rights and limitations.” This is the first year that the US had not been in first place in this annual index.

Patent protection was enshrined in our Constitution and has set us apart from the rest of the world in protecting property of all kinds. It is the main reason that the U.S. has led the world in innovation. But in recent years, a combination of bad legislation, troubling Supreme Court decisions, anti-patent rhetoric at all levels of our government have weakened the U.S. patent system-once the crown jewel of our economy.  Many inventors and venture capitalists are now beginning to look at Germany, England-and even China-as better environments to protect their innovations.

We cannot afford to lose our role as the world’s innovator. This is particularly true because IP-intensive industries accounted for 38% of our GDP in 2014.

President Reagan faced similar challenges after taking office. Then, America’s global economic leadership was threatened by Japan, so Reagan set up a high-level commission and advanced policies to bolster our industrial competitiveness. A blue-ribbon commission appointed by President Reagan found that “inadequate protection of intellectual property rights” was “among the reasons for [a] decline in the U.S. comparative advantage in high technology.”

In response, the administration took steps to strengthen our IP and patent protections, among other important steps. Partnered with pro-growth tax cuts and paring back needless regulation, the Reagan administration reversed much of the decline, and the U.S. continued its economic leadership in the high-tech space.

America now finds itself in a similar situation, and must once again act quickly to reverse the decline.  While America then faced the challenge of Japan threatening our economic and innovation leadership, today we are being challenged by China and South Korea, among others.

The conservative movement stands resolute in calling for the implementation of an agenda to reverse our decline in industrial and innovative competitiveness. That agenda includes: