Sorry, but that is nuts. Change it to "no company that patents technology can be sustained by it" and you would be right. The technology itself marches on, regardless of what country performs the advances.
I suspect that what he means is, that without enforceable patents, companies will not invest in R&D. Why spend the money and give everyone else a free ride? If this occurs, then technology itself will slow waaay down in its "march".
Think about what Sony did when RCA decided that their patents were not worth enforcing. We still got WEGA, my man. If there are dollars to be made, SOMEBODY will pick up the technology and move it to profitability. The point is that the company that does this will not always be American, and we had better get used to that, and learn to compete more effectively unless we want the trickle to turn into a flood.