Intellectual Property Rights Are Not Exclusive

Posted: 10/28/2014

Preamble

Anyone, who follows my blog is aware that I have a very critical disposition towards IP rights. I have addressed IP in several, previous blogs.

One Of Several Flaws Of The U.S. Constitution

There are a number of serious flaws to be found in the U.S. Constitution (in no particular order and the list is certainly not exhaustive):

1. The silly establishment of a postal service
2. The omission of strict limits on taxation
3. The missing prohibition of public sector deficits and indebtedness unless under extraordinary circumstances and only with the approval of a supermajority of elected member of Congress
4. The omission of strict term limits for everyone in public service, i.e. elected representatives, federal government employees, judges and so on
5. The inclusion of intellectual property rights and the omission of well defined short time limits on such rights

An Invention Or Innovation Is
Often Not The Product Of A Single Human

Nearly all inventors or innovators (including the arts and literature) had predecessors or contemporaries from whom they borrowed ideas etc. Just because someone raced to be the first to the patent office or to published a work of art  should not establish a right like intellectual property.

Many Inventions Were Discovered Multiple Times About The Same Time

Here is a short, and very incomplete list:

1. Telephone
2. Transistor
3. Incandescent bulb
4. Balloons to transport humans (e.g. hot air balloon)

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to research in more depth the details of these roughly synchronous, parallel developments.

Again, the question is should only the first one who secures government enforced legal rights to such discoveries be protected and enjoy monopoly rights to exploit a discovery?

Intellectual Property Rights Stymie Progress

I am convinced and I would argue any time that IP rights have probably slowed down human progress by decades if not centuries.

We Would Still Be Living In Caves

Had intellectual property rights been developed before or at the time of cavemen, we would still be living in those caves.

Had not discoveries preceding the establishment of enforceable IP righs been shared, traded, and reverse engineered among humans, we would indeed be living in a very different time.