“advocates for IP often cannot distinguish patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret from each other (and yet support them anyway)” The Problem with Intellectual Property, n.30
“IP has nothing to do with plagiarism or fraud. This is a common confusion, often deliberately and dishonestly spread by those with vested IP interests trying to defend IP law; or by people who are ignorant about the differences yet feel compelled to pontificate on this topic in public anyway.” Intellectual Property Discussion with Mark Skousen
Art doesn’t belong to the artist even before it’s public. Information is not ownable since it does not exist independently, it needs a substrate or carrier; it is just the way an underlying object is arranged or impatterned. The physical object itself which is impatterned is…
Which Path for Patent Challenges? The USPTO’s “One-Challenge” NPRM for Inter Partes Review (Nov. 20, 2025), a recent Federalist Society panel webinar discussing the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) titled “Revision to Rules of Practice Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board,” which proposes significant changes to how inter partes review (IPR) petitions are instituted. [continue reading…]
The court will hear its big copyright case for the year during the first week of the December session, when on Monday, Dec. 1, it reviews a billion-dollar ruling against Cox Communications based on its failure to eradicate copyright infringement by its customers.
Rob Wicks called to my attention The Patent Bay. Not quite sure what is is just yet, but it seems to be an attempt to limit the aggressive use of patents by having members pledges not to assert its patents against other members of the pool. From the home page:
Non-Assertion Patent Pledge
AB SKF (“SKF”) is committed to promoting innovation and helping move the world forward. SKF won’t be able move the world forward alone. That’s why SKF is collaborating with other forward-thinking companies and actors to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. This is made possible through its wholly owned subsidiary ThePatentBay AB.
As a result, each respective Pledge Contributor (as defined below) pledges the free use of its respective Pledged Patents (as defined below) on the following terms. The Patent Pledge (as defined below) is legally binding, irrevocable and enforceable against the Pledge Contributor being the owner of the so Pledged Patents, unless otherwise provided herein. Any Pledge Recipient (as defined below) wishing to make use of any Pledged Patents may do so on the terms set out below.
…
1.1 Patent pledge
Subject to the terms set forth herein, each respective Pledge Contributor commits perpetually and indefinitely not to assert any of its respective rights under the Pledged Patents contributed by such Pledge Contributor against a Pledge Recipient, subject to what is set forth hereunder in section 1.1. By using any Pledged Patent, the Pledge Recipient accepts and agrees to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Non-Assertion Patent Pledge in relation to the Pledge Contributor contributing such Pledged Patent, provided that the Pledge Contributor has not previously granted the Pledge Recipient a license to such Pledged Patent under different terms. Each Pledge Contributor hereby accepts that these terms constitute a binding agreement with each Pledge Recipient who uses its Pledged Patents.
I am not sure if this is really legally binding or practical, but anything anti-patent is good.
Ejan Mackaay, “Economic Incentives in Markets for Information and Innovation,” Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 13, no. 3 (Summer 1990): 867–910. This was part of the “Symposium: Intellectual Property” published in vol. 13, no. 3 (Summer 1990) of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, which also included: [continue reading…]
It may be true that lovers of liberty, originally steeped in society’s preferred form of social democracy, must travel along the spectrum of the state via small (“minimal”) before reaching the conclusion that the state must go. But logically, this is not the case. To cure cancer, it is not necessary to reduce the size of a tumor bit by bit. The cure is to remove it. Similarly, if a rock upsets the flow of a stream, the solution is not to change the size or shape of the rock, to make it more streamlined, but to simply remove it. [continue reading…]
I propose to question the justification of intellectual property based on a formal reasoning that establishes concepts of “good”, “use”, “authority”, “property” and “abundance”, among others. The formal system is structured by means of definitions and axioms that, together and with some premises, attempt to demonstrate solidly (solid deductive argument) that the assignment of exclusive property rights (especially in the context of abstracted ideas or properties) leads to contradictions when considering goods that are abundant (i.e., susceptible of being used simultaneously by different agents). [continue reading…]
Kinsella, Stephan. The Problem with Intellectual Property. Papinian Press Occasional Paper, No. 2. Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, May 15, 2025 (v.1.1). 30pp. ISBN Ebook 979-8-9890306-8-2. Available online at C4SIF. Published under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
Stephan Kinsella’s The Problem with Intellectual Property (2025) is a concise but thorough demolition of the case for patents and copyrights. It draws upon the author’s decades of scholarship and advocacy to set out with clarity why intellectual property (IP) is not property at all, but a state-created distortion of genuine ownership. In doing so, it strengthens a long tradition of Austrian and libertarian criticism of monopoly privileges. [continue reading…]
I’ve complained over the years that many libertarian scholars and writers—often academics and intellectuals who publish scholarly books and journal articles—make the mistake of publishing with commercial or, worse, academic publishing houses that paywall their work. They spend all this effort to develop theory and spread the word of liberty, but then don’t even bother to try to make it easily accessible online. In my view they should put up a free PDF at the very least, and either negotiate permission with the publisher or journal or select a journal that publishes online for free, like the Journal of Libertarian Studies, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Reason Papers, The Independent Review, or various open access journals (there are many of these; see this Grok summary). Unfortunately, other journals in our space, shamefully, are paywalled and closed, e.g. the Review of Austrian Economics and Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. The RAE used to be open when published by the Mises Institute, but when Rothbard died in 1995, the Mises Institute switched the QJAE and turned the RAE over to the Hayekians at George Mason or something who then moved to a closed, paywalled model. [continue reading…]
I received this email so asked Grok to help me. What Grok thinks I might want to write:
The USPTO director and Japan’s patent office just rejected Nintendo’s claims to own “throw ball to catch monster” and “manual/auto battle” — citing games from 2002–2017. This isn’t justice — it’s the patent system admitting it failed, only after a tiny studio spent millions defending itself. If basic gameplay can be patented, innovation is dead. Abolish IP before it abolishes creativity.
On Sun, Nov 9, 2025 at 10:51 AM __ wrote:
HUGE blow to Nintendo: head of U.S. patent office takes RARE step to order reexamination of “summon subcharacter and let it fight in 1 of 2 modes” patent – games fray
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