The Constitutionalist and Utilitarian Justifications for Strong U.S. Patent and Copyright Systems Alden F

The Constitutionalist and Utilitarian Justifications for Strong U.S. Patent and Copyright Systems Alden F

LEGAL MEMORANDUM No. 179 | JUNE 21, 2016 The Constitutionalist and Utilitarian Justifications for Strong U.S. Patent and Copyright Systems Alden F. Abbott Abstract The popular notion that U.S. intellectual property rights, especially Key Points patents and copyrights, are special privileges that merit less protec- tion than more traditional property rights, both on constitutionalist n The Patent and Copyright (IP) grounds and on pragmatic economic policy grounds, is deeply flawed. Clause’s recognition of the exclu- The robust protection of patents and copyrights as property is consis- sive rights of authors and inven- tors in the fundamental law of the tent with the original understanding of the Framers of the Constitution, land conveys the importance of who viewed IP through the lens of natural rights. Also, far from being these rights. inefficient monopolistic drags on economic efficiency as some critics n Some suggested improvements in have suggested, the patent and copyright systems are vital to innova- the patent system are not without tion, wealth creation, and economic growth. Calls to degrade IP rights merit, but a one-sided, nega- are misplaced and, if heeded, would prove detrimental to the Ameri- tive view of patents has come to can economy. Congress and the executive branch should enhance the dominate U.S. public policy to protection of American IP rights both in the United States and around such an extent that the economic the world. benefits of the system and the rights of patentees have been ntellectual property (IP) is increasingly important to the Ameri- largely obscured. Ican private economy, and a discussion of the appropriate public n A significant body of empirical policy toward IP is timely, particularly given the recent growth in research by independent schol- public skepticism toward IP rights.1 Robust federal protection for ars supports a strong association between patents and faster eco- IP is not just important to America’s economic future, but also con- nomic growth and innovation. sistent with constitutional originalism and the early U.S. historical understanding of the nature and role of IP. n Far more serious than copyright expansionism is the proliferation Critical scrutiny has focused on the federal patent and copyright of copyright piracy: the unauthor- systems, which are authorized by the Patent and Copyright Clause ized reproductions of copyrighted 2 (IP Clause) of the U.S. Constitution. The following discussion of works that has continued to grow IP also focuses on patents and copyrights. The other two princi- in severity despite the existence of pal forms of intellectual property, trademarks and trade secrets, statutory civil and criminal penal- ties for copyright infringement. This paper, in its entirety, can be found at http://report.heritage.org/lm179 n Given the grave problem of global The Heritage Foundation copyright theft, this is precisely 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE the wrong time to weaken U.S. Washington, DC 20002 copyright protection. (202) 546-4400 | heritage.org Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. LEGAL MEMORANDUM | NO. 179 JUNE 21, 2016 are the subject of federal legislation pursuant to Recognition of IP Rights the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution,3 as in the Constitution and the Early well as protections in state law. These forms have American Republic received less critical attention lately and are beyond The IP Clause of the U.S. Constitution empow- the scope of this commentary. ers Congress “[t]o promote the Progress of Science Contrary to what some critics have argued, the and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to robust protection of patents and copyrights as prop- Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their erty is consistent with the original understanding respective Writings and Discoveries….” There is lit- of the Framers of the Constitution, who viewed IP tle direct evidence bearing on the Clause’s original through the lens of natural rights. During the early meaning: It was not a major structural innovation stages of the Republic, leading commentators and that sparked debate at the Constitutional Conven- legislators, as well as President Abraham Lincoln, tion, and it did not have great historical significance held IP rights in high regard. Supporters of robust (unlike, for example, habeas corpus).4 IP rights can therefore claim the force of history and One can nevertheless glean important insights constitutional political philosophy, while critics fail into how the Framers of the Constitution viewed in their claims that IP rights are special privileges patents and copyrights by reviewing their writings that should be deemed second-class property rights on property and the political philosophy that ani- (if they qualify as rights at all). mated the Founding Generation.5 Such an exami- Admittedly, the fact that IP rights have solid con- nation reveals that “the claims of individuals” to stitutional backing does not address the question their IP were not deemed by the Framers to be a of how Congress should deal with them today. One special privilege conveyed by government; rather, might ask whether Congress, consistent with its they were considered fundamental natural prop- authority under the IP Clause, should cut back on erty rights, akin to better-known rights in tangi- IP rights for pragmatic reasons, such as strength- ble property. ening the American economy. Far from being ineffi- The Framers’ thinking was informed by John cient, monopolistic drags on economic efficiency as Locke’s understanding of natural rights as expressed some critics have suggested, however, the patent and in his Second Treatise of Government.6 In particular, copyright systems are vital to innovation, wealth Locke’s essay “Of Property,” the fifth chapter of the creation, and economic growth. Second Treatise, offers a justification for the acqui- Thus, calls to degrade IP rights are misplaced and, sition and enjoyment of private property.7 Locke if heeded, would prove detrimental to the American viewed property as a broad referral to the exclusive economy. Congress and the executive branch should rights that individuals hold in their own selves and enhance rather than lessen the protection of Ameri- their own labor.8 He saw government as existing to can IP rights both in the United States and around protect the property persons claim by individual the world. right of acquisition through their labor, which is the 1. See, e.g., N. Stephan Kinsella, Against Intellectual Property (2008), file:///C:/Users/abbotta/Downloads/Against%20Intellectual%20Property_2%20(1).pdf. 2. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 8 (“The Congress shall have Power…To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their Respective Writings and Discoveries….). 3. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3 (“The Congress shall have Power…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States….). 4. See The Heritage Guide to the Constitution 153 (David F. Forte and Matthew Spalding eds., 2d ed. 2014). 5. The following discussion draws in substantial part on Randolph J. May & Seth L. Cooper, The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property (2015). Specific citations to the works referenced in this section may be found in this volume. 6. U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information 258 (Apr. 1986), available at https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1986/8610/8610.PDF. The report asserts that “John Locke, for example, was one of the most influential philosophers on the Framers of the U.S. Constitution.” It then points to various sources backing this claim. 7. John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government (1690), in Lee Stimpson and Betsy Glade, Democratic Citizenship: Documents in the History of Democracy and Citizenship in America 19–28 (1999). 8. Id. at 22. 2 LEGAL MEMORANDUM | NO. 179 JUNE 21, 2016 source of the value that is created.9 Although Locke right, but it also depended on civil society: Laws did not specifically reference IP, by its own terms, established by governments expanded the scope of his conception of property is not limited to tangible protected property and reflected social and techno- property.10 logical progress. Intellectual property and physical James Madison’s acceptance of Lockean concepts property both share this necessary connection to of property is revealed in his 1792 National Gazette the laws of society, and both copyrights and patents essay “On Property.” In that essay, he states that fit within the meaning of property in this narrower property “[i]n its larger and juster meaning embrac- sense of the term. es everything to which a man may attach a value and Stated somewhat differently, in the broad under- have a right” and “which leaves to everyone else the standing of property held by Madison and the Found- like advantage.”11 IP, as well as physical property, ing Fathers, a person has a natural right to the fruits possesses this grounding in natural right: The con- of his or her labor. The right to use one’s faculties to cept of rights in an author’s writings and an inven- acquire property is a personal right, and the right to tor’s discoveries is implicitly encompassed within the actual productions of one’s labor is a property this broad understanding of property. Admittedly, right in the narrow understanding of the term. however, this essay does little to explore the impli- That individuals, by nature, possess a property cations of the distinctions that exist among various right to the fruits of their own labor does not neces- types of property.

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