Why Weak Intellectual Property Rights Threaten Innovation and Competition
Over the past two decades, a largely overlooked revolution in intellectual property law has taken place.
In both patent and copyright law, policymakers have taken almost every available opportunity to weaken protections for the originators and owners of IP-protected assets. In a new book, The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property, I document this unraveling of property rights in the digital economy and identify the ideological and economic forces behind these developments. In that book and a recent contribution to Competition Policy International, I assess whether this weak-IP trajectory promotes innovation and competition policy objectives. Contrary to the standard assumption that antitrust and IP policy inherently stand in tension, I conclude that the erosion of IP rights across content and tech markets risks harm to both innovation and competition.
Read the full piece here.