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For President Barack Obama, it was just another day at work. However, for students and even teachers at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, it was potentially a once in a lifetime experience.
President Obama visited Thomas Jefferson High School on Friday, September 16, 2011 at noon to sign the America Invents Act, which would allow the first applicant to receive a patent rather than the first inventor.
Students and staff of TJHSST were notified Wednesday afternoon, and excitement buzzed throughout the school. The administration chose a select group of students-mostly seniors- who would be able to be at the gym when the President came. The rest of the school watched the event on TV in classrooms.
President Obama first took a brief tour of the school, and visited a few classrooms where a few selected students demonstrated projects, such as robots, which he later described as “unbelievable”. He then gave a brief speech to the school after an introduction by student Rebecca Hyndman, who held a patent herself. He started with a jovial introduction; even saying “I am hoping that I will learn something just by being close to you; through osmosis. I’ll soak in some knowledge. I already feel smart just standing here.”
President Obama explained the reason TJHSST was chosen as the location for the signing of America Invents Act, saying “he [Thomas Jefferson] happened to be the first person to oversee our country’s patent process. And that’s why we’re here today.”
He went on to explain the significance of the America Invents Act: “When Thomas Edison filed his patent for the phonograph, his application was approved in just 7 weeks. And these days that process is taking an average of 3 years.
Over the last decade, patent applications have nearly tripled. And because the patent office doesn’t have the resources to deal with all of them, right now there are about 700,000 applications that haven’t even been opened yet. These are jobs and businesses of the future just waiting to created, and somewhere in that stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug, the next idea that will launch the next fortune 500 company.
We can’t afford to drag our feet any longer at a time when we should be doing everything we can to create good middle class jobs and to Americans back to work. And we have always succeeded because we have been the most dynamic innovative economy in the world. That has to be encouraged. That has to be continued.”
“We have to do everything we can to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit wherever we find it. We should be helping American companies compete and sell their products all over the world. We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into new jobs and new businesses and we should knock down any barriers that stand in the way.
Because if we’re going to create jobs now and in the future, we’re going to have to out build and out educate and out innovate every other country on earth. We’ve got a lot of competition out there and if we make it too hard for people with good ideas to attract investment and get them to market then countries like China are going to at it and beat us to it.
So that’s why I asked Congress to send me a bill that reforms the outdated patent process. A bill that cuts away the red tape that slows down our inventors and entrepreneurs and today I am happy to have the opportunity to finally sign that bill. It is a bill that will put a dent in the huge stack of applications waiting for review. It will help start-ups and small business owners turn their ideas into products three times faster than they can today. And it will improve quality and give entrepreneurs the protection and the confidence they need to attract investment to grow their businesses and hire more workers.”
He also used the opportunity to advocate the America Jobs Act, saying “I have to take this opportunity while I have some members of congress here to say I’ve got another bill that I’d like to get passed.” He described his hope of passing the bill to help out Americans in need, stating “There are folks in Washington who may be fine waiting until the next elections to settle our differences and move forward but the next election is 14 months away. The American people can’t wait that long. There are a lot of people out there living paycheck-to-paycheck, even day-to-day.”
After signing the bill, he briefly shook hands with the crowd before exiting the gym.
Seungho Lee
T.J. High School
Intern for Christianity Daily
President Obama visited Thomas Jefferson High School on Friday, September 16, 2011 at noon to sign the America Invents Act, which would allow the first applicant to receive a patent rather than the first inventor.
Students and staff of TJHSST were notified Wednesday afternoon, and excitement buzzed throughout the school. The administration chose a select group of students-mostly seniors- who would be able to be at the gym when the President came. The rest of the school watched the event on TV in classrooms.
President Obama first took a brief tour of the school, and visited a few classrooms where a few selected students demonstrated projects, such as robots, which he later described as “unbelievable”. He then gave a brief speech to the school after an introduction by student Rebecca Hyndman, who held a patent herself. He started with a jovial introduction; even saying “I am hoping that I will learn something just by being close to you; through osmosis. I’ll soak in some knowledge. I already feel smart just standing here.”
President Obama explained the reason TJHSST was chosen as the location for the signing of America Invents Act, saying “he [Thomas Jefferson] happened to be the first person to oversee our country’s patent process. And that’s why we’re here today.”
He went on to explain the significance of the America Invents Act: “When Thomas Edison filed his patent for the phonograph, his application was approved in just 7 weeks. And these days that process is taking an average of 3 years.
Over the last decade, patent applications have nearly tripled. And because the patent office doesn’t have the resources to deal with all of them, right now there are about 700,000 applications that haven’t even been opened yet. These are jobs and businesses of the future just waiting to created, and somewhere in that stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug, the next idea that will launch the next fortune 500 company.
We can’t afford to drag our feet any longer at a time when we should be doing everything we can to create good middle class jobs and to Americans back to work. And we have always succeeded because we have been the most dynamic innovative economy in the world. That has to be encouraged. That has to be continued.”
“We have to do everything we can to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit wherever we find it. We should be helping American companies compete and sell their products all over the world. We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into new jobs and new businesses and we should knock down any barriers that stand in the way.
Because if we’re going to create jobs now and in the future, we’re going to have to out build and out educate and out innovate every other country on earth. We’ve got a lot of competition out there and if we make it too hard for people with good ideas to attract investment and get them to market then countries like China are going to at it and beat us to it.
So that’s why I asked Congress to send me a bill that reforms the outdated patent process. A bill that cuts away the red tape that slows down our inventors and entrepreneurs and today I am happy to have the opportunity to finally sign that bill. It is a bill that will put a dent in the huge stack of applications waiting for review. It will help start-ups and small business owners turn their ideas into products three times faster than they can today. And it will improve quality and give entrepreneurs the protection and the confidence they need to attract investment to grow their businesses and hire more workers.”
He also used the opportunity to advocate the America Jobs Act, saying “I have to take this opportunity while I have some members of congress here to say I’ve got another bill that I’d like to get passed.” He described his hope of passing the bill to help out Americans in need, stating “There are folks in Washington who may be fine waiting until the next elections to settle our differences and move forward but the next election is 14 months away. The American people can’t wait that long. There are a lot of people out there living paycheck-to-paycheck, even day-to-day.”
After signing the bill, he briefly shook hands with the crowd before exiting the gym.
Seungho Lee
T.J. High School
Intern for Christianity Daily
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