I am sitting, looking at my National InventorsHall of Fame medal. Of the many awards which have come my way, thisis the one that I value most highly. On one side is an engraving ofThomas Edison with Abraham Lincoln. I am wondering what Thomas Edisonthinks of the revision of our US Patent System which CommissionerBruce Lehman and Senator Orrin Hatch and the internationalconglomerates are trying to perpetrate on the small inventors of ourcountry. I feel a close affinity to Thomas Edison. We both began ourcareers in humble circumstances. He performed chemical experiments ina railway mail car between sorting letters. I built the firstsuccessful implantable cardiac pacemakers in the barn behind my house(before there was an FDA!). We both valued and used the US PatentSystem to create socially responsible companies that became worldmarket leaders in their respective fields. We both created jobs forcountless workers. The pacemaker market, non-existent when I started,is now a world-wide, three billion dollar industry. And my batterycompany now makes or licenses over 90% of their implantablebatteries.
My company depends on patent protection. I myselfhave been granted over 150 patents. The US Patent System has servedus well.
As I consider the component parts of SenatorHatch's Senate Bill S. 507, which may come up for a vote this Spring,I think I see a frown gathering on Edison's visage.
Publishing our secrets 18 months after filingunless we agree to forego foreign filings? The Europeans andJapanese would love to rule us out of their markets by so simple aploy.
Corporatization of the Patent Office? Do weneed the non-productive Taj Mahal that Commissioner Lehman wants tobuild across the Potomac, with public money, without even publicsearch rooms? Even his own examiners don't want it.
Harmonization of US and Foreign patentlaws? The US Patent System was designed by Madison and Washingtonto protect the small inventor. But Foreign patent laws are designedto make technology easily available to the large corporations. Godown the list of inventors in the US Inventors Hall of Fame and youwill find that nearly all of our hi-tech industries have come fromAmerican patents originally issued to small inventors. Our present USPatent System has served us well. Why change it?
The clear insult of S. 507 to the small inventor,who has made America great, explains why a small handful of us, alongwith 28 Nobel laureates, Joanne Hayes Rine's "Inventors Digest",Steve Shore's Alliance for Innovation, and numerous editorial writersin the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the WashingtonPost, have succeeded in blocking this legislation from Senate action.We are grateful for a growing opposition within the Senate itselffrom the Small Business Committee and from the floor leadership. Asingle Democratic amendment effectively gutted the House version ofthis bill. We "Davids" actually seem to be winning this war againstthe "Goliaths" of the present administration and the internationalconglomerates.
Now I'm sure I see a broadening smile on Edison'svisage on my medal. I am encouraged to put on my medal and to go andtalk to a couple more senators. Thank you Thomas Edison for theheritage you have handed down to us. With your inspiration, with hardwork on our part, and with the Lord's help, we will earnestly try tohand it down to our children and to future generations. Your Americadeserves no less.
Dr. Wilson Greatbatch is the inventor of theimplantable cardiac pacemaker. He is the recipient of numerous awardsand lives with his wife Eleanor near Buffalo, New York. At the age of78, he still continues to work on various scientific researchprojects. Dr. Greatbatch also serves as the Vice-Grandmaster of theOrder of Alexander the Great for Art and Science.
Copyright 1999 Museum of European Art