Responsible patent protection can help bridge digital divide

[Commentary] One of the untold stories about minority entrepreneurship is the paucity of black business owners in the high-tech sector.

African-Americans today own only 5.5 percent of all US businesses, and an even smaller percentage -- 4 percent -- own high-tech enterprises. While we as a nation need to work much harder to craft new and creative policies that reduce barriers to start and develop businesses to ameliorate this troubling reality, we also must support the minority-owned tech businesses operating today so they and their employees can compete fairly, grow their operations and flourish in the digital economy.

That is why the field of intellectual property (IP), specifically patent law, is so important to the National Black Chamber of Commerce and our members. Many of the 100,000 African-American owned businesses that our organization represents hold patents and compete against other firms that do as well. Those who work to advance minority business have a strong interest in maintaining the proper balance between protecting patent-holders and their intellectual property while preventing abuses of this very same protection.

[Alford is the president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.]