Intellectual property, a highly controversial topic. Some people think that it is the guarantee of innovation and progress, while others think that it is the shackle of innovation. So, is intellectual property good or bad?
Economists Bentham, Say, Mill, and Clark all supported intellectual property rights, arguing that legal protection of intellectual property rights was necessary. However, economists Plante, Rothbard, Bordrin and Levine are opposed to intellectual property. Academician Peter Hobbes, an Australian expert on intellectual property, has also written "Philosophy of Intellectual Property Law" to oppose intellectual property. Academician Hobbes criticized: "Intellectual property is a latent and dangerous paradigm because it artificially creates a phenomenon of knowledge scarcity, thereby weakening the law of continuous enrichment of knowledge." ”
So, on this subject, I would like to recommend two stories about innovation. Classic innovation stories help us to rethink intellectual property and rethink our preconceived notions about this issue.
The first story is the story of Watt and the steam engine. British economist Tim Harford tells the story of the steam engine in "50 Great Inventions That Shaped the World Economy". In 1765, the British engineer Watt built a new steam engine by improving the technology of his predecessors. His business partner, the socially influential Matthew Bolton, was granted a patent after lobbying for parliament. Bolton and Watt used patents to extract licensing fees and suppress opponents. Jonathan Hornblower, for example, built a better quality steam engine, but ended up being imprisoned for infringement and bankrupt.
In fact, there were many predecessors who invented and improved the steam engine before Watt, and if they had all applied for patents, it might have been Watt himself who would have been imprisoned and bankrupt. Did the patent rights bring Watt and his business partners huge profits?No. It was only after Watt's patent lapsed that really made the steam power industry stride. When Watt and Bolton stopped defending intellectual property rights and worked hard to produce the best steam engine in the world, they became rich. In this classic case, the patent rights did not actually promote the improvement of steam engine technology, but rather delayed it. Patents do not benefit inventors, competitors, and consumers, but harm everyone.