The inability of U.S. IP rights to retain their true property status, and the weaknesses – seen and unseen – that have accompanied them, is the focus of The Big Steal – Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property, an timely new book about what the dysfunction of the U.S. IP system impacts, who it benefits, and what can be done to repair it.

That strong IP rights and their restrictions are, in fact, good for innovation, creative expression and the economy, and provide far more opportunities than they might discourage, is frequently lost on even the best-informed professionals, policymakers and educators.

For them, the idea of “good” IP rights has come to be perceived as counter intuitive, the opposite of what they are familiar with. It is a narrative that has been nurtured by vested interests with the help of the media to benefit incumbency of certain successful businesses that fear disruption from new inventions and will not pay for content. Weak, Uncertain IP rights compromise SMEs, undermine inventors and other creators, and weaken society.

Businesses of all sizes, inventors and creators, patent and copyright owners, and anyone who attempts to license or otherwise monetize their intangible assets, are in the same sinking IP ship, weighted by new ideas too numerous to count, digital access too fast to measure, and artificial intelligence too complex to fathom. They would be smart to row together.

Dwindling R-E-S-P-E-C-T 

Author Jonathan M. Barnett, Director of the Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program at the University of Southern California (USC)’s Gould’s School of Law and a former corporate lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, provides context for the dwindling respect patents and other rights have come to expect over the past decade and the serial theft it has engendered.

Businesses of all sizes, inventors and creators, patent and copyright owners, and anyone who attempts to license or otherwise monetize their intangible assets, are in the same sinking IP ship, weighted by new ideas too numerous to count, digital access too fast to measure, and artificial intelligence too complex to fathom. They would be smart to row together.

Barnett reminds readers that infringing copyrights that cover written content, music and images, as well as patented inventions, is theft, and it represents a threat on many levels. The IP playing field, never exactly level, but on balance workable for many of those who persist, is much less viable today.

Writes Barnett:

• “Over anything other than the immediate short term, the world is better off by having replaced the kerosene lamp with electric lighting, rather than simply reducing the price of kerosene lamps.
• “The current IP policy trajectory toward increasingly weaker IP rights risks giving us a cheaper kerosene lamp, but no electric lighting. That may be a good deal for the lamp maker and its existing customers, but it will be a bad deal for just about everyone else.”

Reason for Optimism

What The Big Steal does exceptionally well is make the role of IP rights more meaningful to a range of audiences, essential for rebuilding trust in a system that was once the envy of the world. It also paints a picture of how this happened and who it benefits, and that the dysfunction can be reversed with prudent legislation.

For my full review of The Big Steal, visit IPWatchdog.

Go here for a free digital sample.

Jonathan Barnett will be appearing at the Intellectual Property Awareness Summit, IPAS 2025, in San Francisco on April 24th. Early bird discounts are still available. Go here for the agenda, speakers and registration.

Image source: Oxford University Press; USC