INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual property (IP) is an abstract, complex and critically important policy issue. Although the concept has been part of our nation’s legal system since the Constitution gave Congress the authority to grant copyrights and patents, IP has come to a crossroads in the new millennium.
While we tend to think of patents and copyrights as the territory of inventors, corporations, writers and their lawyers, it is critical for consumers to recognize that they have an enormous stake in how IP rights evolve in the digital age. Technology plays an increasingly important role in our economy, and IP rights are an essential foundation to the success of this industry. In addition, IP laws will continue to impact how we watch TV, listen to music, share information and communicate. Simply put, the system of IP rights established in the coming years will have a profound effect on the way we will live far into the future.
What is IP?
First, think of IP in the same way that you think about any type of physical property (e.g., a car or a house). IP can be created, owned, rented, sold and shared just like physical property. Similarly, IP cannot—or should not—be stolen or misused. The most “visible” forms of IP are content-based products such as movies, software applications, music and art. Less tangible, but also important, are technical and business ideas, which can be patented if they are new and unique.
Why are IP rights and protections important?
At the most fundamental level, IP rights and protections enable people to earn money from their creations. IP protections prevent misappropriation of ideas, content, software and so on, just as property laws make it illegal for a stranger to drive away with your car. (But remember: it’s fair for a stranger to look at your car; more on this below.) By creating incentives for creation, IP spurs investment and innovation, which means that consumers see a steady stream of new choices for technology, entertainment and more.
How do patents help technology thrive?
Patents enable inventors to maintain the value of their inventions even when they share those inventions with the public or other companies. Copyright enables protection of specific content, but you cannot copyright—and therefore protect—ideas. Patents enable the protection of ideas. Because ideas—e.g., unique technologies—can be shared and protected, patents are a critical mechanism in promoting interoperability, trust and security in an increasingly wired world. In other words, patents enable software companies to work together and share information, but still protect their investment in developing unique products. In turn, information sharing and interoperability at the business level becomes new products and services at the consumer level. Virtually any online service that you use relies on patented technology and interoperability.
Opponents of IP.
There are some who believe that IP protections are not necessary in many contexts. For instance, some advocates of open source software (e.g., the Free Software Foundation) believe that IP rights are an impediment to a healthy technology sector. They believe that software code and concepts are akin to speech, and they advocate the elimination of patent protections for software. They see all program code as community property that anyone has a right—and even an obligation—to use and disseminate. While critics of software patents point to financial incentives coming from consulting fees and the creation of custom applications, the loss of IP protection would slow innovation and economic growth in the technology sector.
IP advocates.
Fortunately, the IP “free-for-all” camp is limited mostly to a small segment of the software industry, and few players in the debate believe that there should be no IP rights for digital media, software or ideas. However, there is little agreement about how our nation’s (and the global) IP framework should address the emergence of new technologies, and new ways to produce and distribute digital media. How do we balance the rights of consumers to make “fair use” of products—e.g., copying a CD to play on their own portable devices—against the ownership rights of creators? Again, we understand that a passerby can look at your car, but cannot legally drive it away. Similarly, you can legally view a movie at the cinema, but you cannot legally record it. But more complexly, should a sight-impaired individual be able to use technology to create his own unauthorized audio book-on-CD from an e-book? This is a more difficult question. How policymakers address these issues is important, but we should remember that the fundamentals of IP itself have long provided an essential foundation for our nation’s progress and economic prosperity. American scientific and commercial heroes—Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Henry Ford, to name a few—could not have built their careers and brought the world innovative new products without IP rights and protections.
The future of the debate over IP.
Anyone concerned with the future of the economy and consumer choice should tune in to the debate over intellectual property. American history teaches us that rewarding innovation has numerous benefits, including prosperity for inventors and creative minds, higher-paying IP-based knowledge economy jobs and a steady stream of products that meet consumer needs. Without IP rights, we would see damage not only to industries based on innovation, but to our culture of entrepreneurship, which has always been a special source of strength for the American economy.
