Defense technology entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Anduril Industries, has called for major reforms to the U.S. patent system. In a recent Hoover Institution interview, Luckey argues that public patents now function as “Chinese instruction manuals,” enabling adversaries to rapidly steal technology. He advocates significantly expanding classified patents— inventions that remain secret while still providing legal protection and exclusivity to the inventor.
“The Founding Fathers,” Luckey said, “never predicted a world where you’d have a globalized economy, where the entire patent office could be downloaded every single morning, and then ripped off, and then used to fight a war against you.”
The U.S. Constitution established the patent system in Article I, Section 8, granting Congress the power “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” This provision helped propel American innovation by allowing inventors to profit from their ideas—a key driver of national prosperity.
However, Luckey contends that the patent system itself is not at fault. The problem lies in U.S. policy choices. “What we did is hollowed out our country by allowing China into the World Trade Organization and enabling American companies to outsource manufacturing without penalty, without import tariffs, without any reason not to do it,” he said. In the Hoover Institution interview, Luckey further explained: “For 20 years or so, between when you file for a patent and when someone launches a rip-off product, China can just copy it right away—while Western companies have to wait decades.”
He identifies two critical flaws in the current system: first, that patents are territorial (China is not bound by U.S. law), and second, “forced technology transfer,” where governments require foreign businesses to share intellectual property for market access. Although China is known for such practices, it often restricts actual market opportunities.
Luckey asserts that globalism has led to widespread corporate espionage. “For us to bring back manufacturing in the United States,” he stated, “we have to undo all those offshoring incentives. What we’ve had with China and others isn’t free trade—it’s a one-way money expressway straight into China, with nothing coming back out.”
Rather than overhauling constitutionally sanctioned patents, Luckey argues that lawmakers must address unconstitutional government policies both domestically and internationally that burden Americans and give adversaries an unfair advantage in technology.
