US Commerce secretary Gary Locke has backed research and development (R&D) as a key tool for improving the US job market. Speaking on 7 January at a meeting of the Presidential Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), Locke stressed that the US must regain the initiative in IP commercialisation if it is to harness the nation's workforce and compete with overseas players. While he criticised patent delays at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a hindrance, Locke also outlined a range of potential solutions to boost the US R&D landscape.
'The issues being explored by PCAST are of singular importance for putting Americans back to work in the types of good-wage jobs that can support a family,' said Locke in his address to the council. These types of jobs, he added, 'have been disappearing for many, many years. We can talk all about the structural factors that have made these jobs disappear – be it global competition, productivity gains … or the recent folly of building economies on the ephemeral surface of a bubble'.
Original Article: IP commercialisation is key to jobs, says US Commerce chief | CPA Global Website
Author: IPReview
