This is the third in a series of posts summarizing CPIP\u2019s 2014 Fall Conference, \u201cCommon Ground: How Intellectual Property Unites Creators and Innovators.\u201d The Conference was held at George Mason University School of Law on October 9-10, 2014. Videos of the conference panels and keynote will be available soon.<\/p>\n
The second panel of CPIP\u2019s 2014 Fall Conference analyzed the common moral case for copyrights and patents. The panel was moderated by Professor Chris Newman (George Mason University School of Law). Two of the panelists, Professor Mark Schultz (CPIP, and Southern Illinois University School of Law) and Professor Eric Claeys (George Mason University School of Law) explained the theoretical and normative principles underlying the moral case for intellectual property. The other two panelists, Dr. Ken Anderson (Thermaquatica) and David Lowery (musician, producer, and lecturer at the University of Georgia), then showed how those principles play out in practice.<\/p>\n
Professor Schultz noted that the moral case for intellectual property is often overshadowed by (or outright ignored in favor of) the economic case. But in addition to being economically valuable, intellectual property serves important moral functions by enabling artists and inventors to live free and flourishing lives. Intellectual property fosters economic independence, enables the creation of a private sector, and supports political freedom. Patents and copyrights give an important set of choices to creators and inventors, enabling them not only to survive, but also to thrive. As such, intellectual property is a moral right that facilitates individual liberty. While the economic justifications for copyrights and patents remain important, it is equally important not to lose sight of their strong moral underpinnings.<\/p>\n
Professor Claeys discussed the moral case for injunctive relief against IP infringement. Starting from a traditional property law perspective, he explained that remedies (such as injunctive relief) are essential in reinforcing and vindicating property rights. Just as with traditional property, copyrights and patents confer exclusive control to their owners to secure to them the value of their productive labors. By protecting copyright and patent owners\u2019 discretion over the deployment of their property, injunctions protect their moral rights in the fruits of their labors. Claeys further noted that this labor-based understanding of intellectual property could inform the balance of equities discussed in eBay v. MercExchange<\/em>, filing significant gaps in the Supreme Court\u2019s reasoning and likely leading to a different conclusion regarding licensing companies\u2019 ability to obtain injunctions.<\/p>\n Anderson and Lowery addressed the role of IP in their respective fields. Dr. Anderson discussed how patents were crucial to his ability to obtain investors for his green tech company. He invented a new, environmentally-friendly technology to convert “coal, biomass and other organic solids into low molecular weight products.” Being able to protect the value of his work through patent protection (he filed multiple rounds of patents all over the world) has been essential to his company’s success and his ability to commercialize his invention.<\/p>\n Lowery discussed how the lack of copyright enforcement in the digital era has affected the music industry, leading to an environment where internet platforms thrive, but the artists and creators who fuel the value of those platforms struggle mightily to make ends meet. In many ways, musicians are worse off now than they were in the 1950s (an era that s well-known for the exploitation of musicians). Nonetheless, he expressed hope that the third decade of the Internet could embrace legal and technological\u00a0innovations that make it a\u00a0better place for artists.<\/p>\n In sum, the panelists illustrated the fundamental moral importance of intellectual property, which applies equally to inventors\u2019 patent rights as it does to artists\u2019 copyrights. Intellectual property isn\u2019t just about economic incentives. IP also promotes progress by securing the individual liberty of inventors and creators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the third in a series of posts summarizing CPIP\u2019s 2014 Fall Conference, \u201cCommon Ground: How Intellectual Property Unites Creators and Innovators.\u201d The Conference was held at George Mason University School of Law on October 9-10, 2014. Videos of the conference panels and keynote will be available soon. The second panel of CPIP\u2019s 2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,12,22,24,26,27,29,30,35,38,46,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences","category-copyright","category-copyright-theory","category-history-of-intellectual-property","category-injunctions","category-innovation-2","category-intellectual-property-theory","category-internet","category-inventors","category-patent-law","category-patent-theory","category-remedies","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16949,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions\/16949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}