IP Protection Matters is a podcast interview series examining notable issues related to the protection of and threats to intellectual property. IP Protection Matters is a project of the Center for Individual Freedom.
Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, discusses the historical and Constitutional foundations of intellectual property rights and the vital role IP rights play in our innovation economy.
Jaci McDole, Senior Director, Copyright and Creativity at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center, explains how intellectual property protections are critical to the success of small businesses and the American dream, and discusses some inspiring, real-world case studies highlighting innovators and creators.
Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Business & Economics at Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and Director of PRI’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation, discusses how price controls and other efforts to undermine and weaken intellectual property rights harm innovation and work contrary to President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative.
David Williams, President of Taxpayers Protection Alliance, discusses how compulsory licensing of intellectual property, price controls and patent confiscation policies like expanding government march-in powers under Bayh-Dole will reduce innovation and the availability of new life-saving drugs.
Dr. Kristina Acri, Senior Scholar at C-IP2 and John L. Knight Chair of Economics and Professor of Economics at Colorado College, explains how the data just doesn’t add up to support allegations of patent “evergreening” and accompanying policy proposals by advocates pushing to weaken patent protections, the ongoing consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay v. MercExchange, the problem of counterfeit drugs, and more.
Chris Israel, Executive Director of Alliance of U.S. Startups and Inventors for Jobs, discusses how the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) has failed to accomplish its intended purpose, multiplying proceedings and costs for inventors and startups rather than curb unnecessary litigation, and several pieces of pending legislation in Congress – including the PREVAIL Act, PERA, and RESTORE Act – that would help restore some balance and fairness at PTAB and reestablish the presumption of injunctive relief to patent owners who are facing infringement.
Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, explains how strong intellectual property protections are critical for startups and small businesses, and how bad policy proposals like the push for expanded government “march-in” powers under the Bayh-Dole Act would disincentivize investment in medical advances and new technologies, the bulk of which are pursued by individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Paul R. Michel, Former Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, discusses how a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions and other efforts have been deleterious to a strong patent system, how the U.S. is ceding our global leadership to China and other nations that are strengthening their IP systems instead of weakening them, and bipartisan legislation being championed by IP leaders in Congress that will help revive the American patent system as an engine of growth, global leadership and technological superiority.
Stephen Ezell, Vice President of Global Innovation Policy and Director of the Center for Life Sciences Innovation at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, discusses why the United States must reassert itself as a global champion for robust intellectual property (IP) rights through trade policy, building IP capabilities in developing countries, and more.
Kelly Anderson, Executive Director of International Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center, discusses the 2024 International IP Index, the socio-economic benefits of strong intellectual property frameworks, and the need for the United States and European Union to renew their global leadership in support of strong IP protections.
Joseph Allen, Executive Director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition, discusses the history behind the Bayh-Dole Act, how it has revolutionized the U.S. economy, and how calls for expanded government “march-in” rights and other efforts threaten to undermine Bayh-Dole and the enormous progress it has helped spark.
Alden Abbott, Senior Research Fellow at Mercatus Center and former General Counsel at the Federal Trade Commission, discusses the 2024 patent landscape, legal decisions and foreign developments that pose a danger to America's patent-driven world leadership, and four specific federal actions that can be taken to help sure up U.S. innovation and prosperity going forward.
John Stanford, Executive Director of Incubate, discusses how bad policies – like drug price controls in the Inflation Reduction Act and other policy efforts to undercut strong IP protections – discourage private investment and significantly impact the incentive for scientists and inventors to innovate.
Brad Watts, Vice President for Patents and Innovation Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center, discusses how bad data and pejorative terms like “evergreening” and “patent thickets” are misleading the public policy debate over strong patent protections.
Andrei Iancu, Former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO (2018-2021) and current Co-Chair of the Council for Innovation Promotion, discusses the terminology used by advocates of weaker patent protections and how the USPTO’s proposal on “terminal disclaimers” is bad policy and likely violates the law.
James Edwards, Founder and Executive Director of Conservatives for Property Rights, discusses the conservative case for strong intellectual property (IP) protections and how USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board threatens patent rights.
Patrick Kilbride, Policy Fellow with the Center for American Principles, discusses how intellectual property (IP) protections drive innovation and how IP and innovation ecosystems are under attack by interests that don’t want to be encumbered by the rights of others.