Welcome to the News Room

A few weeks ago, Pugatch Consilium’s Professor Meir Pugatch and Dr David Torstensson were
in Washington D.C. to help launch the inaugural edition of the Congressional Innovation
Scorecard.

The purpose of the Congressional Innovation Scorecard is to assess and rate how the U.S.
Congress as a whole and its individual members (Senators and Representatives) through their
political, legislative and policy activities work to promote and nurture America’s goal of a strong
national IP system that drives innovation, boosts economic competitiveness, and improves lives
everywhere.

The U.S. economy is today not only the largest economy in the world – with an estimated GDP
at over USD 25 trillion – but is in size and scale the biggest source of innovation and creativity
globally. This creativity and innovation is in large measure due to our advanced system of
intellectual property (IP) rights and incentives. The USPTO found in 2022 that IP-intensive
industries made up over 40% of the U.S. economy and supported around 63 million jobs or 44%
of all national employment. The importance of IP-intensive industries to the national economy is
also reflected in the value of the largest and most successful U.S. companies, namely those
constituting the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 index. Two generations ago, in the mid-1970s,
four-fifths of the value of the companies listed on the S&P 500 lay in their tangible assets.
Today, the opposite is true. A study by Ocean Tomo JS Held found that, as of 2020, 90% of the
value of S&P 500 companies lay in their IP assets. Indeed, IP-intensive industries have never
been more important to the U.S. economy or our national security which depends on America’s
ability to out-create, out-invent, and out-innovate any potential adversaries or future national
security threats. But a strong innovation-based economy cannot exist without a strong IP
system – both today and for our future. In this sense, our national IP system is America’s 401(K)
program — the vehicle we use as a nation to invest in our country’s future. Consequently,
nurturing our national IP system is critical to ensuring future prosperity, peace, and security, a
job that falls in great part on our nation’s lawmakers.

Key findings
Key finding 1: The U.S. Congress as a whole is failing to engage fully and effectively on national
IP issues – gets a Scorecard grade of ‘C’ / ‘C-‘
A substantial majority of Congressional membership – close to seven out of ten members –
receives a Scorecard grade of “C” or “C-.” In legislative terms this means that close to a
supermajority of Congress shows, at best, only a passing interest in national IP policy. While IP-
intensive industries made up over 40% of U.S. GDP and 90% of the value of the S&P 500, only
a small percentage of bills introduced and considered – let alone voted on by the whole
Congress – over the last three congresses have been pro-IP. There is a striking disconnect
between most members of Congress claiming to be pro-innovation and this lack of activity in
relation to pro-IP policies. To be pro-innovation one must also be pro-IP.

Key finding 2: Despite the overall lack of engagement on IP issues, there is a small group of IP
champions in the Senate and pro-IP voices in the House of Representatives
Across the three congresses examined in the Scorecard there is a clear group of IP champions
in the Senate – Senators Chris Coons, Thom Tillis, and Mazie Hirono. These senators
consistently sponsor, cosponsor, and vote for pro-IP policies. In particular, over the time period
studied, Senators Coons and Tillis outperform the rest of the Congress by a significant margin.
In the House of Representatives, members were less active on IP, and nobody rose to the level
of the Senate champions. Still, a few stood out among their peers, including, for example,
Representatives Ben Cline (who achieved the highest score in the House), Deborah Ross,
Hakeem Jeffries, and Thomas Massie. The leaders of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual
Property, and the Internet – Representatives Darrell Issa and Hank Johnson – also proved to be
generally pro-IP voices, with Representative Issa more on copyright-related issues and
Representative Johnson more on patent-related issues. Both were also active in relation to
trademark-related issues, including cosponsoring the SHOP SAFE Act.

Key finding 3: There is also a group of members that are affirmatively and consistently hostile to
pro-IP policies, thereby harming America’s competitiveness and national security
Across the three congresses examined in the Scorecard, a group of members in both the House
of Representatives and Senate have through their political, legislative, and policy activities
supported and promoted anti-IP policies. In the Senate, these Members include Senators
Maggie Hassan, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Peter Welch. In the
House of Representatives these Members include Representatives Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
and Lloyd Doggett.

To access the Scorecard please visit:
https://c4ip.org/congressional-innovation-scorecard/

To read more about the Scorecard and coverage in the mass media please see:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/lawmakers-lack-serious-engagement-in-ip-issues-
scorecard-says