Patent and property right BEJ L4

What does private property mean? What may be implied by our recognition that someone has property of her own? How do people acquire private property? What are the justifiable means to acquire pp?

Intellectual property Patents Trademarks Copyrights Should they be protected by the governments on a global scale?

Patent (In the us) a property right granted by the US Government to an inventor "to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States" for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.

Trademarks

Stakeholders The Property Owner The Potential Buyers The Needy Society/Community Competitors Suppliers

Private Property? Objects Natural environment Fishes/Tress/Ivory Ideas Genes (Monsanto) People (slaves/women) Land (for the American Indians)

Grounds of ownership God’s will Natural Rights Efforts/Labor Need Public Welfare (Utilitarian concern)

Production and reproduction Material property and intellectual property Piracy Plagiarism

Right analogy? 「你既然不會偷車、偷錢，亦不會到商場的唱片店舖偷 唱片，所以，你也不應該在未經許可的情況下下載 電影及唱片檔案。」

Exclusive right To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writing and discoveries. Article I, Section 8, The US Constitution

Arguments for PP Rights Liberty Creative Self-fulfillment Autonomy, Self-determination People being subjects of their own destiny Social Utility Reward Researches to deal with Human Evils

R&D involves a Huge investment The pharmaceutical industry claims that on average it costs over $100 million to develop a new drug and bring it to market. (5-10% of sales) Pharmaceuticals are easily cloned and the industry is one of the more seriously affected by pirating. If researches and developments are not effectively protected, incentives to innovate will perish.

Arguments against pp rights? Social Utility? Cumulative Nature of the Creative Process Restrict Freedom: The inventive process should be as free as possible. Need Community as a Collective Entreprise

Is pP right a natural right? Unlike inalienable rights, intellectual property rights can be subordinated to greater interests; in this case the right of a people to livelihood. (Secondary Rights) Should the content of private property rights be adjustable according to the socio-economic and developmental characteristics, and public interests priorities of a society? (Moral Relativism)