Lawmakers Introduce Act to Block Patents for Security Threats

House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, along with Congressmen Scott Fitzgerald and Darrell Issa, introduced the Prohibiting Adversarial Patents Act in Washington, D.C. The legislation aims to block U.S. patents from being issued to individuals or entities listed as national security threats on the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex (CMIC) List, the 1260H List, or the Federal Communications Commission's Covered List.

Lawmakers argue that the Chinese Communist Party uses the American intellectual property system to advance economic and military ambitions through the theft of innovation and a strategy of lawfare. The House Select Committee on China specifically cited Huawei and ZTE as examples of Chinese firms with significant U.S. patent holdings and licensing revenue. Supporting data from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows Chinese residents filed a record 49,000 patent applications in the U.S. in 2024.

The bill received support from the High Tech Inventors Alliance, which asserts that foreign interests have weaponized patents against critical domestic sectors, including semiconductor manufacturing, digital infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. The alliance claims the measure will prevent foreign entities from using the legal system as a tool for economic warfare against American businesses.