Rothbard on Lawyers, Accountants, Locks and Safes–and patent lawyers?

Update: See Are anti-IP patent attorneys hypocrites?, collecting various posts about this topic.

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Writes Rothbard:

[T]here is … a good reason for our paying money to tax lawyers and accountants. Spending money on them is no more a social waste that our purchase of locks, safes, or fences. If there were no crime, expenditure on such safety measures would be a waste, but there is crime. Similarly, we pay money to the lawyers and accountants because, like fences or locks, they are our defense, our shield and buckler, against the tax man.

A similar justification could be made of patent attorneys who help defend companies and people from patent or copyright suits, or to help them acquire patents so that they can be used to defend against patent aggression from competitors.

Related posts:

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• Taiwan’s Defensive “Patent Bank”
• Apple accuses Motorola, Samsung of monopolizing markets with patents–or, you’ve got to be kidding me
• The Patent Defense League and Defensive Patent Pooling
• The “Productivity” of Patent Brainstorming
• Are anti-IP patent attorneys hypocrites?
• Patent Lawyers Who Don’t Toe the Line Should Be Punished!