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.
Blog posts about Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Rights vs The Bill of Rights
For all the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, which celebrates its 229th birthday this week, there is one that you won’t [...]
This Week in Intellectual Property, December 17th
Rent Check There's been significant confusion surrounding a bill proposed by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) closing the so-called "felony streaming loophole." It's certainly [...]
This is No Way to Run a Railroad
Yesterday, #EndDMCA was trending on twitter, largely due to the promotion of Chelsea Manning. The hashtag was in response to a bill introduced [...]
This Week in Intellectual Property, December 10th
News and Commentary Lila Bailey is profiled in this Fortune piece. It discusses her legal career, her move to the Internet Archive, and her [...]
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