Prohibiting Adversarial Patents Act of 2026

Ban patents for certain foreign companies

If enacted, this bill would stop the U.S. Patent Office from issuing patents to persons on three national-security lists: the OFAC Non‑SDN Chinese Military‑Industrial Complex List, companies designated under section 1260H of the FY2021 NDAA, and the FCC Secure and Trusted Communications Networks list. Any United States patent issued to such a person would be unenforceable. The bill would also ban expedited patent reviews for those persons, including procedures under the Patent Prosecution Highway. The President could waive the bans for successive periods of up to 180 days, but only after sending a detailed report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees at least 30 days before a waiver. The bill would still let those persons file patent applications and have applications examined (except for expedited review), and it would not change existing patent ownership or term.