Celebrating National IP Month

October may bring to mind football, the World Series, harvest season, a chill in the air or shortening days. However, we should keep in mind that October is National Intellectual Property Month.

Intellectual property is one type of private property. Just like a deed to land or a title to an automobile, a copyright, patent or trademark is someone’s title to the fruits of his or her mind’s labors.

Unique to IP is its nature as property that didn’t previously exist. A painting, sculpture, movie, book, or a commercial mark, such as a corporate logo or slogan, each constitute newly created property.

Thus, the one who created an original work naturally owns the work she or he created. IP is not a right the government grants. No, what the government gives, the government can take away. IP rights are inherent just like life, liberty and property. God generously shares with human beings, His image bearers, the faculties and abilities to discover and to fashion creations from things found in nature. Only evil governments deny people or private enterprises the fruits of their labors, associated investments or calculated risks.

Good governments secure the inherent ownership rights of creators and inventors. Good governments respect IP rights. Good governments uphold those rights, for instance, through the rule of law, fair and impartial judiciaries, rules- and evidence-based procedures that ensure IP owners’ ability to enforce their rights against infringers.

America’s Founders considered IP so crucial to the success of the United States, they included IP rights in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8—the only place in the original U.S. Constitution where the word “right” appears. Our first president, George Washington, urged Congress to exercise that provision by sending him patent and copyright laws to sign. Congress obliged Washington.

As I discuss in my book, To Invent Is Divine: Creativity and Ownership, the American IP system most closely implemented the biblical IP model. Our system was designed to reward ingenuity and creativity with exclusive ownership of one’s own created works, to guarantee inventors and creators enjoyment of the fruits of their labors. That includes having a clear field to commercialize a created work and creating wealth. Meanwhile, the benefits flow to our economy, raise the country’s standard of living and improve the human condition in the process.

National IP Month reminds us that IP, inventors and creators have, by design, long played a central role in America’s success. This October, let’s celebrate the Founders’ insight and vision and the vast fruits of intellectual labors for more than 200 years.