One of the foundations of America’s commercial and industrial success was its patent system. A person could invent something, patent it, and be protected against imitators who’d duplicate it and undercut his prices, making it impossible to recoup the necessary investment. This encouraged people to think and do. Steam engines were made, and put on boats and trains. Electricity was run through wires. Motors turned. Planes flew. Oil wells were drilled, refineries built, and life was transformed from the Iron Age.
All these changes were based on new inventions which, for the most part, were protected by patents. Prosperity ensued.
But, there were people who didn’t study, think about, and try to improve things. They were sullen and resentful. “Those people who work real hard and figure out better ways to do things are getting all the money. That’s not fair to we who don’t work real hard and figure out better ways to do things.”
The bitter, sullen, and resentful knew that the source of legal protections for new ideas was the Patent Office. So, they picked away at it, giving it directors who’d undermine. The courts helped. Juries are very good at figuring out if people have infringed patents. They are authorized to award triple damages in the case of willful infringement, along with attorneys’ fees.
Liberal judges tend to ignore such verdicts. “Finding willful infringement is not fair to people who have to steal other people’s ideas because they are too lazy to invent things of their own.”
To the left, the only skill worthy of being rewarded is the ability to accept political correctness, and the machinations of mediocrity that inevitably accompany it, as a way of life.
