Thoughts on President Obama's Inauguration Speech

While this may be (and probably is) reading too deep into the text of our 44th President’s address today, I wanted to point out a couple passages.

“Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”1

While I cannot blame the current state of the economy on intellectual property issues, there is certainly quite a bit of complaint that can be made of greed and failure to make hard choices that may or may not need to be made. Patent trolls are one example that come to mind, and the firms that buy up unused or unheard of patents to landmine an unsuspecting company for millions of dollars.2 Also the Copyright Term Extension Act (“CTEA”) also comes to mind.3 The needless extension of the term of a copyright’s life, while protecting the artist’s (or creator’s) work, in thoughts acts as a chill upon the blooming of the creative arts. It was my understanding that Congress was supposed to encourage the useful arts,4 but the CTEA seems contrary to the purpose laid out in the Constitution.

“Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”5

The makers of things. Those that use their mind’s power to make our world. They have always been celebrated and if not for American ingenuity we would not be the superpower we are. This is intellectual property at its core. Innovation drives all the economy and all of us.

“Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed.”6

Protecting narrow interests has been a hallmark of U.S. intellectual property policy around the world. This needs to change in a big way, or the U.S. will likely find itself on the short of end of a big stick in the future.7 Failing to protect other countries’ nationals’ IP eventually will result in a tit-for-tat trade war, one that we as a country will likely lose. The PRO-IP Act, recently passed into law at the end of George Bush’s tenure in office reiterates the attitude of “protect U.S. interests abroad, but forget the rest of the world.”8 President Obama is absolutely correct, that a new way forward, on all accounts will be necessary to properly heal the American economy and protect U.S. interests at home and abroad.

1: President Barack Obama, Inauguration Speech, January 20, 2009, available at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090120/ap_on_go_pr_wh/inauguration_obama_text.
2: See generally Patent Troll, Wikipedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll.
3: Copyright Term Extension Act, Pub.L. 105-298, codified in 17 U.S.C. § 102 (2006) (extending copyright protection to the life of the author plus 70 years or in the case of a corporate author 120 years after creation or 95 after publication, whichever is shorter).
4: U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 8 (providing that Congress is "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.")
5: Obama, supra note 1.
6: Id.
7: See ITC, Ltd. v. Punchgini, Inc., 482 F.3d 135 (2d Cir. 2007) (“[Petitioner] argues the United States cannot expect other nations to protect famous American trademarks if United States courts decline to afford reciprocal protection to famous foreign marks.”); see also Brief for American Intellectual Property Law Association as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioner, ITC, Ltd. v. Punchgini, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 288 (No. 06-1722) 2007 WL 2174224 (suggesting the 2nd Circuit decision in ITC puts the U.S. in violation of its treaty obligations); Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 S. 3325, 154th Cong. (2008) [hereinafter PRO-IP Act] (inferring from the Joint Strategic Plan’s primary focus on international relations, with a cursory discussion of domestic intellectual property issues that protection of foreign rights in the U.S. will be minimal).
8: See PRO-IP Act, supra note 7

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