奥巴马签专利改革法案为就业法案助力

President Barack Obama has signed legislation to speed the process of approving U.S. patents. The president says the new law is part of his initiative to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

美国总统奥巴马已经签署加快批准美国专利过程的立法。奥巴马总统表示，新的法律是他创造就业机会，刺激经济增长方案的部分内容。

President Obama visited a high school for science and technology near Washington Friday to sign the bill, which is part of his bid to improve U.S. economic competitiveness.

奥巴马总统星期五造访了华盛顿附近一所科技高中，签署了这项法案。这项法案是他改善美国经济竟争力努力的一部分。

Mr. Obama used one of the country's most famous inventors as an example of why the patent laws needed to be updated.

奥巴马总统以美国最著名的发明家为例，解释专利法为什么需要更新。

“When Thomas Edison filed his patent for the phonograph, his application was approved in just seven weeks. And these days, that process is taking an average of three years,” the president said.

他说：“当托马斯·爱迪生为他的留声机申请专利的时候，他的申请仅仅7个星期就获得了批准。而现在，这个过程平均需要耗费3年的时间。”

The U.S. Patent Office is expected to open more offices and hire as many as 2,000 new patent examiners in the next year.

明年，美国专利局预计将开设更多的办公室，并雇用多达2千名新的专利审查员。

The president said shrinking a backlog of almost 700,000 applications will help the economy and create jobs.

奥巴马总统表示，缩小长期积压的将近70万件专利申请，有助于帮助美国的经济增长以及创造就业。

Friday’s bill-signing was the president’s second visit in a week to the politically important state of Virginia. He used the occasion to campaign for his $447 billion jobs legislation.

星期五签署法案，是奥巴马总统一周内第二次访问政治上非常重要的维吉尼亚州。他利用这个场合来为他的总值4千470亿美元就业法案造势。

“This change in our patent laws is part of our agenda for making us competitive over the long term. But we have also got a short-term economic crisis, a set of challenges that we have to deal with right now. What the American Jobs Act does is it puts more people back to work and it puts more money into the pockets of working Americans,” Obama said.

他说：“对专利法进行这些修改，是为了长远地增强我们的竞争力。但是现在我们也有短期的经济危机，以及一系列挑战需要应对。美国就业法案所做的，就是要让更多的人找到工作，同时让美国劳动者的口袋里有更多的钱。”

Opposition Republicans in Congress have indicated that they will be willing to pass some parts of the president’s jobs bill, but not others.

国会反对党共和党人已经表明，他们愿意批准总统所提法案当中的某些内容，但不是全部。