The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)-an agency with the extraordinary power to block imports and, in turn, influence the direction of American technology policy-has drifted out of that balance. To align with the Trump Administration's intellectual property priorities and pro-investment agenda, the ITC is in urgent need of reform.
The U.S. patent system is facing challenges from many stakeholders, including from groups that believe a weak patent system will result in lower drug prices and more widely available treatments. Such a system would have the opposite effect: fewer treatments being developed due to less research dollars spent. Research and development, and subsequently new drug products, will not occur without a meaningful patent system to provide a level of certainty that investments can be recovered.
John A. Squires was confirmed as USPTO Director on September 17, 2025. The Senate voted to confirm Squires using the "nuclear option" - although he received strong bipartisan support in the Judiciary Committee (20-2). Squires is a longtime patent attorney with experience in many aspects of the IP system: prosecution, litigation, licensing and deals, management, etc. He has a chemistry background prior to law school, and also worked for many years in fintech - the same field as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Simply stated, the Federal Circuit presumption that issued patents are unenforceable because it took too long to get the patent violates decades of common law.
