The GOP is no longer the party of country clubs and corporate boardrooms. As the massive shift of working-class voters just made clear in November, today's Republican Party is now, unquestionably, the party of the "little guys." Americans like my younger self who grew up in trailer parks, had to pay their way through college, and worked their way to the middle class and beyond.
President Trump proved himself to be a champion for these “little guys” and their drive to achieve the American Dream during his first term, even in the corners of government most people don’t even know exist. This includes the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which became a lifeline for the “little guy” innovative startups and small businesses struggling to compete against larger, well-funded Big Tech companies.
Without the USPTO and the intellectual property protections it issues and defends, a lone inventor working in their garage could risk everything on a potentially world-changing discovery, only to have a big corporation swoop in and steal their idea. In such a world, there would be no incentive to invent in the first place and the start-up economy would stagnate, strangled at launch.
Now, the second Trump administration can once again be a champion for inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses, and stop predatory Big Tech practices that weaken the economy by restoring the USPTO as the little guy's chief defender in Washington.
The connection between innovation, investment, and job creation isn't theoretical.
Disruptive startups with robust IP portfolios are typically far more successful in securing venture funding than their counterparts without patents. The approval of a startup's first patent can increase its employment growth over the next five years by a staggering 36%. Nearly half of all U.S. jobs are now in IP-intensive sectors, and jobs in these sectors pay 60% more, on average than positions in other industries.
In addition to supercharging America's economy and supporting millions of jobs, innovation policy is a critical lever the Trump administration can use to uplift and empower communities left behind due to unfair trade policies and the hollowing out of America's manufacturing base.
In North Carolina, for instance, we've lost a staggering 328,000 manufacturing jobs since 1994. As jobs moved overseas, booming furniture factories and textile mills shuttered, and many families who'd relied on these industries for generations had to find work elsewhere.
Fortunately, investments from innovative, IP-intensive sectors helped alleviate these losses and provide renewed economic opportunity across our great state. Consider biotechnology. In 1992, biotech employed around 34,000 North Carolina workers. Today, it's 75,000.
That number keeps growing. Between 2020 and 2022, according to NCBiotech, "there were 31 public announcements from biopharmaceutical manufacturing companies totaling nearly 6,200 new jobs and $7.6 billion investment."
Of course, not everyone is on board with the GOP's transformation into a party that puts workers and innovators ahead of entrenched special interests. There is an army of lobbyists cynically pushing to gain influence in all corners of government to ensure the continuation of their predatory behaviors.
Acquiescing to Big Tech demands would be a grave mistake. For years, these companies have sought to make it more difficult and expensive for startups to defend their intellectual property, thus making it easier to poach smaller rivals' inventions and shatter their American Dreams. They even unsuccessfully sued the first Trump administration over a USPTO policy meant to help "little guy" inventors protect themselves against corporate giants by streamlining litigation.
President Trump's campaign platform declares that Republicans will fight for the "Forgotten Men and Women of America" and "pave the way for future Economic Greatness by leading the World in Emerging Industries." The American people agreed and elected him back to the White House. Now it’s time for the supporters of our next President – from members of Congress to the agency leaders he nominates and appoints – to help him accomplish this goal by putting the "little guys" over the established special interests.
Thom Tillis, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from North Carolina.
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