Today, we pioneers and leaders of electronic commerce, are meeting here to call for changes in US patent law. We believe such changes are needed to deal with new business models related to the growth of the Internet.// I share the same view with Jeff Bezos, chief executive of online bookseller Amazon.dot.com. Mr. Bezos argued in an open letter that current patent laws could end up harming all kinds of businesses if the laws were not adapted to new business methods used in e-commerce.// I think U.S. Patent laws are designed to protect the commercial rights of people who have invested in new products, systems or methods. Hereby I propose that the period of protection offered by patents should be cut from 17 years to about 4 years. I also propose a one-month period of public consultation before patents are issued.// If changes in the patent laws are going to have any real impact, they must be made soon, before too many more new business method patents are issued. Some of my colleagues in the industry have already begun lobbying lawmakers to make the changes. But we have to be a little bit more patient because it will take at least two years for any changes proposed now to be approved by lawmakers and established as law.//

　　今天我們這些電子商務(wù)的創(chuàng)始人和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人在此集會(huì)，共同呼吁修改美國專利法。我們認(rèn)為互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的發(fā)展已形成了一些新商業(yè)模式，專利法必須經(jīng)過修改才能應(yīng)付這些新情況。//我同在線書店亞馬遜電子商務(wù)公司的首席執(zhí)行官杰夫.貝索斯特有相同的觀點(diǎn)。貝索斯先生在一封公開信中指出，現(xiàn)行的專利法若不加以修正以適應(yīng)電子商務(wù)的新模式最終將影響所有的商務(wù)活動(dòng)。//我認(rèn)為，制定美國專利法的根本出發(fā)點(diǎn)是為了保護(hù)那些投資開發(fā)新產(chǎn)品、新系列新方法者的權(quán)益。我在這里提議，專利權(quán)的保護(hù)期應(yīng)該由原來的17年縮短為4年。同時(shí)我也建議，專利發(fā)布前應(yīng)該有一個(gè)月的公示咨詢期。//如果想讓專利法的修改真正起到作用，那就必須加快修訂步伐，不然的話，等越來越多的商務(wù)模式新專利頒布后再進(jìn)行修改，為時(shí)已晚。電子商務(wù)產(chǎn)業(yè)的一些同行已開始有立法人修改法律。但是我們還得耐心等待，現(xiàn)在提出的修改建議至少要等上兩年才能被立法部門確定為正式的法律。//