FIRST ON FOX: More than two dozen conservative policy and business groups are urging President Donald Trump to push back against a United Kingdom patent proposal they say would undermine American innovation and give China an edge in next-generation technology.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, a coalition of 26 free-market organizations led by Conservatives for Property Rights warned that U.S. innovators will "suffer irreparable harm" under a British government proposal that would allow its Intellectual Property Office to set royalty rates and release data for patents, including those tied to artificial intelligence and 6G wireless technology.
"The UK’s regulatory move effectively represents an assault on U.S. (as well as European) patent value," the 26 co-signers wrote, calling it "an attack on the quality of American and Western patented inventions in standardized areas of technology, on U.S. leadership in global research and development (R&D), and on patent licensing fees that are based on patent quality and market-set value."
The groups argue that the proposal would incentivize China to flood the system with low-quality patents while penalizing U.S. companies for producing fewer high-quality inventions.
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"Conservatives urge the U.S. government to intervene against the latest European regulatory assault (by the UK) on American intellectual property, standard-essential patents in particular," the letter said.
A standard-essential patent (SEP) protects technology standards critical to the safety and integration of different products and services. The coalition argued that SEPs are vital to U.S. innovation, trade and economic security.
"Britain’s government takeover and dumbing down of royalty rate setting, along with adding excessive regulatory burden regarding patent essentiality, neglects the fact that standards development is a voluntary, private sector process that results in high-quality technologies and rewards high-quality innovation through the market," the letter continued.
James Edwards, founder and executive director of Conservatives for Property Rights, told Fox News Digital that the U.K. proposal devalues "many of the world’s most valuable, cutting-edge patents" by allowing the government to set the royalty rates rather than the private market.
"This is the same sort of government interference in the free market and rank bureaucratic devaluation of superior goods as price controls, extortionary taxes and similar assaults on private property," Edwards said. "It destroys incentive, opportunity, economic freedom, and dynamism that combine to drive the pace of innovation."
Edwards said the U.K.'s "extremist regulatory move" would make it harder for American innovators to compete with "government-owned or subsidized Chinese companies that don’t have to concern themselves with succeeding in the free market."
"This attack on standard-essential patents and the standardization system plainly helps our global adversaries and reduces Western competitiveness," he said.
The British government launched its SEP consultation in July, seeking measures to improve the SEP ecosystem. After identifying several SEP issues, including the lack of price and licensing transparency, technical standards and complex litigation, the consultation closed on Oct. 7.
The consultation included several possible reforms, including establishing a governing body to set royalty rates and requiring patent holders to register their technologies publicly, earning the ire of U.S. innovators and policy groups.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the U.K. Intellectual Property Office but did not immediately receive a response.
