Of all the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson had the most
substantial direct experience with the issues surrounding
intellectual property rights and their impact on creativity,
invention, and innovation. In our own digital age, in which IP has
again become the object of intense debate, his voice remains one of
the most vital in American history on this crucial subject.
Jefferson lived in a time of immense change, when inventions and
other creative works impacted the world profoundly. In this
atmosphere it became clear that the developers of creative works
and the users of those works often have competing interests.
Jefferson appreciated as well as anyone that the originators of
ideas needed legal protection. He also knew that innovation was
crucial for a nation's economic prosperity as well as its political
health, and that rights should not become barriers.
Jefferson was in a unique position to understand the issues of
intellectual property rights. His pronouncements on these issues
were those not of a scholar but, rather, of a practitioner. As a
scientist, author, and inventor, he was a prolific creator. He was
also a tireless consumer of others' works. As America's first
patent commissioner, he decided which ideas merited protection and
effectively created the patent review process. Jeffrey Matsuura
profiles Jefferson's diverse and substantial experience with these
issues and discusses the lessons Jefferson's efforts offer us
today, as we grapple with many of the same challenges of balancing
IP rights against an effort to foster creativity and innovation.
Without inserting Jefferson anachronistically into the current
debate, Matsuura does not shy away from positing where in the
spectrum of opinion Jefferson's ideas lie. For lawyers, legal and
technology historians, and entrepreneurs, Matsuura offers a fresh,
historically informed perspective on a current issue of major
importance.
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