Vermont Democrat perma Senator Patrick Leahy will FINALLY be leaving office. It is worth taking a moment and looking at the nigh-eternal DC existence of Patrick Leahy. This is the epitome of a lot of things wrong with DC.
Leahy was born in 1940 — before World War II began. He was first elected to the Senate in 1974 — during the only, truncated Gerald Ford Administration. It was TWELVE Administrations before that.
Prior to Leahy’s near half-century in the US Senate, he worked for…government. Although in a capacity with some actual value — as a prosecutor. That eight years was preceded by less than two years — right out of law school — working at the law firm headed by…then-Vermont Governor Phillip Hoff.
What is the takeaway? As an adult, Leahy almost never worked in the private industry. Even the very short private time that Leahy did work in the private sector was all government-related. Your law firm may be run by the governor. That’s government-related. (I wonder what the company received from the government while the lead attorney was the head of the state)
What is the takeaway? Leahy has spent nearly half a century governing a private economy, with almost no real experience.
Leahy’s interminable tenure in DC was almost entirely awful — and mostly known for two things: Judges and Intellectual Property (IP). Shocker! He failed on each of them.
It is a very bad sign. Every one has long-lasting ramifications on the nation.
The lifetime appointment of judges and justices is a benefit. So awful, activist appointees can do decades-worth of damage to the nation — including for decades after they’re gone. But originalist appointees may be able to undo some of the damage. Leahy always championed the former — and went all-out to destroy the latter.
Leahy was a LONG-time member of the Senate Judiciary Committee — and served for a very long time as its chairman. Leahy was not an admirable steward of both the judiciary’s confirmation process and its procedures. He was an evil, hyperpartisan hack.
Patrick Leahy sits in the Center of Partisan Judicial Nominations
Pat Leahy: The ‘Nastiest’ Democrat:
“Pat Leahy is the meanest, most partisan, most ruthless Democrat in the Senate….
“(H)e was a major tormentor of Robert Bork during those awful hearings….In fact, he was responsible for one of their moments of highest drama.
“He scolded Bork for doing insufficient charity work while a professor at Yale, and recited the fees he earned as an outside consultant during the years 1979 to 1981.
“Responded Bork, ‘Those are the only years I ever made any money in consulting.’ He continued, emotional, ‘There was a reason to get money, and I don’t want to get into it here.’
“Leahy acknowledged that the judge had his reasons. Then Sen. Gordon Humphrey, a Republican, broke in, saying, ‘Judge Bork, this is a very personal question, and if you prefer not to answer it, by all means do not — but were those years [ones that] coincided with heavy medical bills in your family?’ Bork spoke one syllable: ‘Yeah.’
“The bills to which Humphrey had referred were for Bork’s first wife, Claire, who died in December 1980. This was not only a moment of high drama, but one that turned the stomachs of many of those watching….
“Bob Bork would have been a great Supreme Court justice, and the American people did themselves a terrible disservice by electing to the Senate the kind of men who could not abide him on the Court.”
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Leahy’s IP record is no better. This is probably even worse.
Poor IP policies can cause economic damage for decades. Including for decades after you make corrections to the original awfulness — if you can ever repair it at all.
IP requires HUGE time and monetary investments into the research and development (R & D) required to make IP happen. Poor IP policies can stop these investments from happening.
You are years away from creating any IP new ideas, even if the policy is changed. Because you have to start the R & D clock all over again — and start running again from a dead standstill. Without a lot of the players and coin you once had — because they’re long gone to more hospitable climes.
Subcommittee on Intellectual Properties of the Senate is part of the Judiciary Committee. Leahy also served as a member of that subcommittee over many years. The results were…not good. Which, of course, hasn’t stopped Leahy from bragging about them:
“Senator Leahy was the lead author of the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act (AIA), which was signed into law by President Obama on September 16, 2011. Senator Leahy worked for more than six years to craft consensus legislation to reform the nation’s antiquated patent system, which had not been updated in nearly six decades.”
DC, more than any other place on Earth, ignores the truism “If it ain’t broke — don’t fix it.”
There’s a reason we hadn’t “reformed” our patent system for six decades. Because the US had been the most successful country on the planet in its history.
Between 1951 and 2011, the US created hundreds of millions more things than the rest of the globe, which they sold for tens trillions of dollars. These sixty years were, by an order of magnitude, the most productive period in American history.
That’s what Leahy brags about “reforming.” How’d that “reform” actually go?
The America Invents Act Has Harmened Inventors
“The America Invents Act (AIA) was the single worst disaster in the 226 year history of the U.S. patent system. The AIA did very real damage – enough to put many inventors out of business and discourage many others….
“The real damage was hidden in the AIA’s creation of the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) and three new procedures to invalidate issued patents – Inter Partes Review (IPR), Post Grant Review (PGR) and Covered Business Method Review (CBM)….
“(L)itigation experience was required to understand the damage of the PTABs and since less than 2.3% of patents are ever litigated, only a very small subset of inventors have ever been forced by infringers to defend their patent rights. Of those, an even smaller subset knew about the provisions in the AIA, could project the damage those provisions would cause….
“The AIA turned the patent system on its head, and today inventors can scarcely do anything with their patents. I’ve been to dozens of inventor clubs in the last six months talking about patent reform. The vast majority of inventors have left the US patent system, exactly as the multinational corporations who supported its destruction want.
“These independent inventors can’t license their inventions, which means they can’t fund their companies to continue to research, develop and commercialize their inventions. This was the goal of the large multinational corporations….
“If inventors can’t make money by inventing, they stop… and that is what is happening all across America. One company that supports inventors has laid off up to 70% of its staff. The canary is not only unconscious, it is burning in flames threatening to ignite the entire coal-mine….
“Entrepreneurial inventors and the start-ups that rely on the innovation generate most of America’s new jobs and the collapse of the patent system is a major reason why America’s real job market (as opposed to the fiction delivered monthly by the Department of Labor) is stagnant and our economy is not growing….
“The AIA is a certified disaster, and PTAB procedures are the core reason why.”
Since 2000, we have been being screwed by the AIA (and its PTAB). Over the years, US IP talent has flooded out of America.
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What if the AIA could be completely repealed today? To reacquire all that money and talent it would take many decades. It would take decades to accomplish this, if it were possible. It would take many decades to regain our leadership in global IP. We would be able to do it if we could.
Are these truly terrible results? Are the “reforms” about which Leahy is bragging.
These are almost certain to make up the majority of his terrible legacy.
This awful rubbish is to be thrown out.
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