Comment: The legal tradition (which I

In post: Mises Institute: How Intellectual Property Hampers Capitalism

In reply to comment: good point. (see in situ)

The legal tradition (which I

Submitted by GregP on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:45. Permalink

The legal tradition (which I think Jefferson promoted) is that IP must be novel, create new function, and be non-obvious. That means that improvements to existing ideas are possible but must be demonstrated to provide new functionality and be non-obvious which means taking a machine and essentially improving it to the point of creating new functionality. Jefferson discusses this very issue in a letter because he had the same concern. He believed a change needed to be a substantial improvement to receive a patent.