Patent and copyright laws create temporary monopolies, known as “intellectual property,” designed to incentivize artistic creation and technological innovation. While these monopolies raise returns for patent and copyright holders, they also impose costs—not only on consumers forced to pay higher prices, but also on downstream innovators dependent on monopolized inputs. These costs have exploded in recent decades because of a huge and unwarranted expansion in the scope of patent and copyright protection. As a consequence, intellectual property law now does more to deter innovation than to encourage it—while at the same time generating huge fortunes and outsized profits for a lucky few.