As we at CFIF often highlight, strong intellectual property (IP) rights - including patent rights -…
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Senate Must Support Strong Patent Rights, Not Erode Them

As we at CFIF often highlight, strong intellectual property (IP) rights - including patent rights - constitute a core element of "American Exceptionalism" and explain how we became the most inventive, prosperous, technologically advanced nation in human history.  Our Founding Fathers considered IP so important that they explicitly protected it in the text of Article I of the United States Constitution.

Strong patent rights also explain how the U.S. accounts for an incredible two-thirds of all new lifesaving drugs introduced worldwide.

Elected officials must therefore work to protect strong IP and patent rights, not undermine them.   Unfortunately, several anti-patent bills currently before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this week threaten to do exactly…[more]

April 02, 2025 • 08:29 PM

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Home Press Room CFIF Opposes Biden Administration Nomination of María Pagán as Ambassador to the World Trade Organization
CFIF Opposes Biden Administration Nomination of María Pagán as Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Print
Monday, March 07 2022

ALEXANDRIA, VA – President Biden has nominated María Pagán to serve as Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO).  The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) staunchly opposes Ms. Pagán’s confirmation as she has been hostile to the protection of vital intellectual property rights, specifically with her advocacy in support of waiving provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for COVID vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.  As the U.S. Senate prepares to consider her confirmation, CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella issued the following statement:  

"Strong intellectual property (IP) protections, including patent protections, explain why the United States stands unrivaled as the most inventive, prosperous and powerful nation in human history.  For example, the U.S. accounts for an astonishing two-thirds of all new drugs introduced worldwide, thus creating as many lifesaving drugs as the rest of the world combined.  That is the direct result of our nation’s legacy of strong patent and IP protections.  

"Perilously, however, Ms. Pagán and others – both domestically and within the WTO – support the U.S. surrendering its world-leading patent and IP protections on COVID vaccines, diagnostics, treatments and other innovations.  Such a move would needlessly and tragically undermine the very policies that prompted pharmaceutical innovators, leaving us less capable of addressing current and future diseases.  

"That much is not lost on the American people. In June, roughly eight in ten voters agreed that countries should honor their trade agreements with the U.S. protecting U.S. IP (83% Agree) and that the U.S. needs strong IP protections to encourage innovation (78%).

"Simply put, as we are reaching the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, now is not the time for the U.S. Senate to confirm a nominee who would be willing and able to negotiate away American intellectual property. For that reason, CFIF resolutely opposes Ms. Pagán’s nomination, and urges the U.S. Senate to reject her confirmation as Ambassador to the WTO.”  

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