Happy World Intellectual Property (IP) Day!<\/p>\n
Among the many elements explaining American Exceptionalism in worldwide innovation, power and prosperity, nothing stands above our enduring legacy of protecting IP – patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets.<\/p>\n
Since America\u2019s founding, we\u2019ve protected IP like no other nation before or since.\u00a0 Our Founding Fathers deliberately inserted text protecting IP rights into Article I of the Constitution, which reads, \u201cCongress shall have the Power \u2026 To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.\u201d\u00a0 And as James Madison explained in the Federalist Papers while advocating ratification of the Constitution, protecting IP respected the natural right of individuals to enjoy the fruits of their labors, while also serving the public good by encouraging innovation.<\/p>\n
The assurance that one\u2019s creations will enjoy legal protection in turn promotes creative activity, which is why Abraham Lincoln\u00a0\u2014 himself a patent attorney\u00a0\u2014 noted that America\u2019s IP protections, \u201cadded the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of new and useful things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consequently, no nation spanning the entirety of human history even approaches America\u2019s record of patented invention, from the telephone to the airplane, from lifesaving pharmaceuticals like the polio vaccine to the internet.\u00a0\u00a0 No society remotely rivals our copyrighted artistic influence, whether in the form of motion pictures, television programming or popular music.\u00a0 No nation’s trademarks stand recognized in the way that the Coca-Cola or Apple logos are instantly identified across the world.\u00a0 A direct relationship exists between our tradition of IP protection and our unrivaled success in innovation and prosperity.<\/p>\n
That’s why we at CFIF are pleased to join over 100 other free-market, conservative and libertarian organizations here in the U.S. and across the globe in celebrating World IP Day, as highlighted by our collective open letter<\/a> to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)<\/a> Director-General Daren Tang:<\/p>\n IP-intensive industries play a central role in job creation. In the United States, IP-intensive industries<\/span><\/span> account for 44 percent of total employment, and jobs in these industries come with a 60 percent <\/span><\/span>weekly wage premium over jobs in other industries…\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Intellectual property protections are also important for promoting economic growth.\u00a0 The United<\/span> States Patent and Trademark Office found that IP-intensive industries contribute $7.8 trillion USD to<\/span> the U.S. economy, or nearly 41 percent of total U.S. DP.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce\u2019s Global<\/span> Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) further reported that these innovative industries account for over<\/span> 40 percent of U.S. economic growth.<\/span>\u00a0 The role of robust IP protections is clearest when contrasting country scores and their World Bank<\/span> income classification.\u00a0 According to the 2021 International Property Rights Index, high-income<\/span> <\/span><\/span>countries\u2019 scores were 33.5 percent stronger than the average score of upper-middle-income countries and 66.1 percent stronger than the average score of low-income countries.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0 This IP<\/span> protection gap must be closed.”<\/span><\/span>
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