First, Let’s Kill All the Intellectual Property Lawyers!: Musings on the Decline and Fall of the Intellectual Property Empire
34 John Marshall L. Rev. 851 (2001)
41 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2013 Last revised: 28 May 2017
Date Written: March 25, 2001
Abstract
This Article examines current trends at reducing intellectual property protection both domestically and internationally through both public access doctrines such as fair use, and the disturbing trend toward a resurrection of the doctrine of election. The Article examines the historic and economic role of intellectual property in incentivizing creativity. It explores the balance required between IPR incentivization and public welfare needs to establish a workable international protection system for intellectual property rights. It recommends that the trend toward election and present hostility to IPR protection be slowed so that studies can be undertaken to quantify the incentivizing aspects of IPR protection internationally. Such studies would enable critical balances between between incentivization and public welfare to be determined in an objective manner. Such objectivity is critical in establishing development policies for today’s globalized economy.
Keywords: doctrine of election, intellectual property, public access, globalization, international protection, incentivization
JEL Classification: O34, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation