The Hidden Cost of ‘Free’: The Big Steal Shines a Light on the Domestic Threat to U.S. IP Rights - P2

Shidonna Raven
1 hour ago
2 min read

January 9, 2025

Photo / Image Source: Unsplash,

Those in the IP community who believe rule-of-law matters will appreciate Barnett’s ability to articulate what they already know. They will find a legal scholar with the economic and political background and writing skills necessary to convey the source and nature of the dysfunction. Disrespect for IP rights has become widely accepted, even championed. Many have thrown in the proverbial towel. Why make businesses pay for abstract rights when they can be free, and the savings can appear to be passed along to consumers?

Barnett reminds readers that infringing copyrights that cover written content, music and images, as well as patented inventions, is theft, and it represents a threat to creators, businesses and society alike. The “free” model of no-charge products or services, he argues, works for a handful of highly capitalized companies with strong distribution channels and deep pockets that can absorb the costs of low initial returns and defensive litigation. Think Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Apple. “Free” or devalued IP rights undermine competition, discourage investment and prevent healthy disruption required for breakthrough inventions.

The IP playing field, never exactly level, but on balance workable for many of those who persist, is much less viable today. The sad events of the infamous Robert Kearns intermittent windshield wiper dispute, dramatized in a 1993 article in The New Yorker and film “Flash of Genius,” has become more the rule than the exception. The even graver problem is that many in the IP community who are aware of the frequency of IP theft and the difficulty of proving it, who should know better, choose to accept it. The Big Steal will make it easier for them to understand and explain the danger and why the system must be rebalanced by legislation.