The ones who are known are few and far between. Here are the ones I have noted so far:
- Me (obviously);
- My friend R. Anthony Diehl, registered patent attorney, is opposed to it, and knows what a state boondoggle it is;
- patent attorney Richard Osman, who writes: “I’m not sure I fit into a category of anarchist or anti-IP: on balance, I think patent, copyright and trademark grants do more harm than good to humanity and posterity”
- law professor Michael Davis, also a registered patent attorney, opposes the patent system (for leftist reasons, I believe, unlike my own pro-property, libertarian reasons–but still; see The Morality of Acquiring and Enforcing Patents);
- Daniel Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) and Legal Director of Software Freedom Law Center, and also a registered patent attorney, appears to be opposed to patents or at the very least has serious reservations;
- Professor Eric E. Johnson (see Intellectual Property’s Great Fallacy);
- law professor David Koepsell;
- Tom Bell (see Tom W. Bell on Intellectual Property) [update: this is a slight overstatement; Bell is not completely against IP, but is for fairly radical reform].
- Joren De Wachter (software lawyer)
- anonymous
- Hersh Reddy (patent attorney who seems much more skeptical than most about many aspects of the current patent system—see Techdirt Podcast Episode 20: How The Patent System Is Broken).
- Terry Dwyer (not confirmed–possibly paid ad/spam)
- “Arceris“
Ayn Rand would have shuddered to contemplate this possibility, since she thought “Intellectual property is the most important field of law.”
If anyone knows of other outspoken patent practitioners or IP law professors who are vocally opposed to IP please let me know.
See: Patent Lawyers Who Don’t Toe the Line Should Be Punished!, where I wrote:
My friend Tony Diehl, registered patent attorney, is opposed to it, and knows what a state boondoggle it is. As I noted in The Morality of Acquiring and Enforcing Patents, law professor Michael Davis, also a registered patent attorney, opposes the patent system (for leftist reasons, I believe, unlike my own pro-property, libertarian reasons–but still); and Daniel Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) and Legal Director of Software Freedom Law Center, and also a registered patent attorney, appears to be opposed to patents or at the very least has serious reservations.
Michael Meurer, who started at Univ. of Buffalo, and is, I think, at Boston now, has been quite critical of the patent system.
Thanks, David. Maybe he gets an honorable mention. I don’t think he’s an abolitionist or near-abolitionist, however, as far as I can tell. More of a reformer, I think. Would that there were more of us outright abolitionists!
True, true
Or as we would say in Louisiana, truedat.
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