Posts Tagged: "President Abraham Lincoln"

America innovates most when government stands behind a stable property rights regime

America innovates most when property rights are stable and government gets out of the way so risk takers can dream the impossible and then go accomplish those dreams… The patent system all three branches of our government has created over the last 12 years has increasingly incentivized the stealing of patent rights rather than engaging in an arm length negotiation with innovators who possess patent rights that are supposed to be statutorily presumed valid. This is antithetical to basic, fundamental principles embedded throughout American law, and basic economic principles. Laws are supposed to be certain, stable and understandable. When that occurs externalities and transaction costs are low, which allows for the bargaining of rights to ensue.

Ted Cruz has much in common with Abraham Lincoln, thanks to patents

For Cruz his depth of sincere appreciation and awareness of the role patents and private property rights comes from his meager roots, from his work as an attorney in private practice for commercial clients, and working for the people of Texas as their Solicitor General and on cases involving eminent domain and intellectual property. If the 2016 Presidential race were simply a one issue contest Cruz would certainly enjoy a substantial advantage. But since the 2016 race is defined by personality then it is worth noting how much Cruz has in common with Abraham Lincoln, thanks to patents. Among other things, just as Ted Cruz used patent litigation to fund his Senate campaign, Lincoln funded his Congressional and Presidential campaigns on patent lawsuits.

Music lover, history buff, Mr. Fix-it – Getting to Know Bruce Kisliuk

QUINN: ”I always refer to myself as a geek or a nerd. Do you wear that too as a badge of honor?” KISLIUK: ”Oh, absolutely. When my neighbors needed something fixed — it’s a little geeky but — I would grab my bucket of tools and walk up the street. I was proud they would ask me — even more so if I could actually fix it! So I think only a geek would be proud to spend their Saturday helping their neighbor fix something.”

Lincoln loved our patent system, Let’s not tear it down

Abraham Lincoln once called the patent system one of the three greatest advances in human history, along with the discovery of America and the printing press… The result is a patent system in crisis, which threatens our economic future. Small businesses received 30 percent of U.S. patents in 2000. Last year the number plummeted to 19.5 percent. Small companies undertake the risk and expense of developing breakthrough technologies that made us the most prosperous nation in history. When they lose confidence in the patent system the country will suffer.

Happy Birthday to the Patent System, A Dream of Our Forefathers

As Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, spoke about on 60 Minutes, true innovation does not come from the large corporations. Instead, it is some “graduate student” or “crazy person” that makes change, such as the obscure Wright Brothers warping the airplane wings to control flight. Without a patent system, innovators and inventors from all walks of life will be unable to safeguard their intellectual property and profit, violating a central tenet of the patent system. Penalizing the poor students and the visionaries by hindering their chance to protect their technological advances in patent litigation is not justifiable and is not right. Legislation making fundamental changes to the law to thwart innovators (and their backers) getting their say in court is highly suspect and perhaps unconstitutional. Further, in a time when Americans have lost countless manufacturing jobs and have retooled, it does not make sense to weaken something at which Americans are good: innovating and inventing.