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13 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 911 (1990)
Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks: Property Or Monopoly

handle is hein.journals/hjlpp13 and id is 927 raw text is: PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, AND TRADEMARKS: PROPERTY OR MONOPOLY? ROGER E. MEINERS & ROBERTJ. STAAF* Who could reasonably complain about a merely apparent privilege? It neither harms nor hinders any branch of indus- try that was previously known. The costs are paid only by those who do not mind paying them: their wants... are not less fully satisfied than before. -Jean Baptiste Say' I. INTRODUCTION Most economists view the patent system as a desirable mo- nopoly.2 Few economists condemn patents as unwarranted or inefficient intrusions in the private sector. This was not always the case. As Fritz Machlup and Edith Penrose note, economists and lawyers quarreled about the desirability of patents in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.' For example, Jeremy Ben- tham and John Stuart Mill advocated patents, and Adam Smith was not opposed to them. Clark, like Bentham, believed inno- vations would nearly cease without patents, while Taussig and Pigou took the view that patents made little difference.4 Hayek appears to be opposed to patents.5 In the Nineteenth Century, the patent debate was character- ized in terms of free trade versus protectionism, with protec- tionists favoring monopoly grants to inventors, and the free traders against grants. The free traders lost, but not without * Roger Meiners is Director, and Robert Staaf is Senior Research Scholar, Center for Policy Studies, Clemson University. Both authors are Professors of Law & Econom- ics at Clemson. The authors wish to thank the Liberty Fund for support of this re- search. The authors also appreciate the helpful comments and criticisms especially from Louis De Alessi, as well as Bill Dougan, Don Gordon, and Bruce Yandle. Despite these contributions, the authors recognize that they may have monopoly rights in the remaining errors. 1. 1 J. SAY, TAITrrA D' 9CONOMIE PoLrrouJE 263 (1st ed. 1803). 2. Economic writings on intellectual property generally are concerned with patents. The authors will focus on patents but note that innovations covered by patents are only one form of intellectual property. Much of the discussion on patents applies to other intellectual property, as will be reviewed later. 3. Machlup & Penrose, The Patent Controversy in the Nineteenth Century, 10 J. ECON. HIST. 1, 7-9 (1950). 4. A. PLANT, SELECTED ECONOMIC ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES 39-40 (1974). 5. See F. HAYE, THE FATAL CONCEIT: THE ERRORS OF SOCIALISM (1989).

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