Faster Government Response Needed on Tech Sector Issues, Executives Say
Telecom and tech industry executives said the federal government should address issues that executives believe will be fundamental to the tech sector’s continued growth, including cybersecurity, privacy and patent reform. The federal government “needs to adjust dramatically” on those issues and do so at a faster pace than they have in the past, said Cisco CEO John Chambers during a joint 1776-TechNet event Wednesday.
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Chambers said at CES in January that France was the second-most-frequent country of origin for startups, behind only the U.S. France’s government under President Francois Hollande and the nation’s business community quickly partnered to “digitize” France’s economy, which has jump-started tech growth there, Chambers said. “That’s speed of change from a country that you might not associate with speed of change,” he said. “What you’re going to see behind that is a digital Germany, a digital UK, a digital Europe.”
Tech leaders need to “be able to get our message tighter” on issues like patent litigation reform and take the time to effectively educate members of Congress on those issues, Chambers said. Patent litigation reform remains “a huge deal” for the tech sector and remains one of the issues that has the best chance for a consensus solution, he said. “I think we’ve got consensus across the Democrats, the Republicans and the administration” on the fundamental components that need to be fixed, Chambers said. Cisco and other major companies are “doing a better job” of staving off patent litigation abuse where they can, but “now we need help from government to finish the push on this,” he said.
Passing patent reform legislation would also benefit startups, which are frequent targets of patent litigation and “don’t have the deep pockets to defend themselves,” said ClearStreet Chairwoman Kim Polese. The House Judiciary Committee is considering the Innovation Act (HR-9) as its main patent reform bill. The bill, championed by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., passed the House in 2014 325-91 but similar legislation failed to get past the Senate Judiciary Committee (see report in the May 23, 2014, issue).
Visa Vice Chairman-Risk and Public Policy Ellen Richey said she's “very worried” about cybersecurity issues due to recent data breaches, which she said are a “big drag on innovation.” Innovations in cybersecurity technology that automate practices will be a major aide in improving cybersecurity, but the federal government will need to coordinate with other nations to “put cybercrime out of bounds,” Richey said. “We need to have a major diplomatic initiative to raise the cost and risk to these people who are preying” on U.S. networks.
Data liquidity is an issue that stretches across many parts of the sector and there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer about which federal agency “owns” it, said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. “The FTC thinks they own who controls how data can be used,” while the FCC believes its new net neutrality rules mean “they have a role to play in terms of how you use this data and how you can liquefy this data. It’s a big issue for us as a country.” Traditional U.S. educational institutions are proving “ineffective” at training the U.S. workforce for an increasingly digital economy, with individual businesses frequently having to step in, Stephenson said. A tax system that was on par with the rest of the world would also help the U.S. economy grow faster, he said. “We can fight gravity, but gravity ultimately wins,” Stephenson said.