The Consumer Electronics Association brought together a roundtable of D.C. tech trailblazers yesterday at 1776 to discuss two politically-tied issues crushing our country's potential to stay a leader in innovative thought: immigration reform and patent policy. Though centered on two unrelated topics, the discussion led by CEA Vice President of Governmental and Regulatory Affairs Michael Petricone posed the problems through the same spectrum: if they aren't solved soon, the U.S. will continue to lose ground in the global innovative competition.
As the discussion started, Petricone noted that several of the attendees around the table were immigrant entrepreneurs and "living proof of why this is a big issue." At least five or six entrepreneurs around the table raised their hands when ask to do so to see how many of them were foreign-born.
Here are some of the more insightful comments given during the talk about immigration reform:
Ximena Hartsock, Chilean-born co-founder of Phone2Action: "I was the first in my family to come here for grad school and I stayed. I felt, 'Wow. What a country where dedication, hard work and talent is recognized.' But now you see these policies that are actually truly against that. So instead of creating an environment where we foster and welcome innovation, we're actually pushing people out and creating this sense of believing that living here is very difficult and it may not be worth."
Doug Naegele, founder of Infield Health: "In software development the unemployment rate is zero, unless it's by their own choosing. When I need expertise to do the things I can't do, we just can't hire anybody in America. That stifles our ability to deliver things to clients quickly. So we have used overseas developers. We've had our overseas developers then say, 'How can we come to America?' I have gotten that email. I have the perception that it's such a large mountain to climb. And that seems like a loss for America. Because if I were to get that person to America, get that person rolling, and then if we ran out of work for them in six months, they are going to be employable somewhere else."
Maksim Tsvetovat, CTO of Open Cancer Network: "In my other life I am a professor at George Mason and also I teach part time at CUNY in New York. I see the opposite side of the equation. I have amazing graduate students who are coming out with amazing degrees in specialized tech fields and they're having an incredibly tough time getting a Visa to stay in America. They might be Google quality candidates or awesome candidates to join startups, but a lot of times they can't stay. A lot of people would rather repeatedly run headlong into a wall than tackle an H1B Visa. It's expensive, it's very humiliating. The thing I would love the most is that all of the advanced graduates coming out of our schools would get green cards stapled to their degrees. I would love to snag those people up, but I can't."
Petricone: "It's not just imperative that we do it, because eventually it's the economics and such that will do it. It's imperative that we do it now before we lose any more ground."
The talk about patents that followed was more brief, but highlighted how patent trolling – the process of people filing patent infringement claims against companies in hopes they will meet their monetary demands – is likewise destroying innovative thought. Todd Moore, founder of TMSOFT and creator of the White Noise app, was the target of the patent troll Lodsys a few years back who claimed they had a patent on his White Noise product. "I did what everyone in my shoes would do: I ignored it," he said. But then a few months ago, the trolling company filed a lawsuit against him. Luckily, he was able to hire a pro-bono patent attorney, which is unheard of. Most targeted companies, though, couldn't afford to hire a patent attorney. Lodsys just wanted $4,000 and they said it would all go away. "I could've paid that, but why? Who would be asking for their handout next?"
Moore's story highlights an important trend. Trolls are targeting more and more small companies due to the fact they can't afford court costs, hoping they'll settle outside of court. And because that actually happens quite often (but not in Moore's case – he won), the statics are under-representative of the actual problem as most companies settle, file non-disclosure acts and their story of being exploited never sees the light of day.
While the government is shutdown, obviously no momentum on these issues will be gained on Capitol Hill. However, Petricone and CEA's VP of Congressional Affairs Veronica O'Connell are hopeful these two issues will be addressed and litigation will be passed to reform them. Otherwise, they threaten to stint innovation in America indefinitely.
