WASHINGTON — Tucked away in the thousands of pages of a worldwide trade agreement is a little-noticed provision that has become Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's passion in the new Congress.

Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) has been cornering his colleagues to convince them that the matter will cost U.S. inventors millions of dollars that will ultimately land in the pockets of foreign companies and multinational corporations.

An array of inventors--from the man who created kitty litter to the inventor of the magnetic resonance imaging scanner--have enlisted Rohrabacher to thwart a provision that would shorten the length of time a person can hold exclusive rights to his or her invention.

Rohrabacher, a former editorial writer who is working on a book, said he felt somebody had to step up to fight for the creative voices behind inventions that save lives or make everyday tasks easier.

"As a writer, I've always noted that creative people are taken for granted," Rohrabacher said Friday. "I think this whole patent issue is an example of how creative people are stepped on by the upper levels."

No other issue has taken up as much of his time so far this year, Rohrabacher said.

The congressman has enlisted the support of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and more than one-fourth of the House of Representatives. But Rohrabacher's first hurdle is convincing a fellow Southern California Republican to support the measure.

The work started last year when Rohrabacher tried to have a section removed from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a worldwide trade agreement Congress approved in December.

The provision would change a 150-year-old law that gives inventors the rights to their creations for 17 years after the patent application is approved. The GATT requirement would extend the period to 20 years from the date the application is filed.

But because of sometimes lengthy delays by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, inventors say the change would shorten the time their patent is valuable and deprive them of royalties.

For example, if a patent application takes 10 years to process, the inventor has only 10 more years at that point to make money from the creation. Under the old system, the inventor would have 17 more years to earn royalties.

However, some inventors say the new system is necessary to prevent "submarine patents," in which an inventor applies for a patent but purposely delays its approval through amendments.