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62 UCLA L. Rev. 1328 (2015)
Faith-Based Intellectual Property

handle is hein.journals/uclalr62 and id is 1335 raw text is: Faith-Based Intellectual Property Mark A. Lemley ABSTRACT 'Ihe traditional justification for intellectual property (IP) rights has been utilitarian. We grant exclusive rights because we think the world will be a better place as a result. But what evidence we have doesn't fully justify IP rights in their current form. Rather than following the evidence and questioning strong IP rights, more and more scholars have begun to retreat from evidence toward what I call faith-based IP, justifying IP as a moral end in itself rather than on the basis of how it affects the world. I argue that these moral claims are ultimately unpersuasive and a step backward in a rational society. AUTHOR William H. Neukom Professor, Stanford Law School; partner, Durie Tangri LLP. 'Thanks to Dan Burk, Michael Burstein, Brett Frischmann, Paul Geller, Rose Hagan, David Nimmer, Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Mark McKenna, Peter Menell, Seana Shiffrin, Tim Wu, and participants at the Melville Nimmer Memorial lecture at UCLA Law School and a debate at Stanford Law School for comments on an earlier draft. Thanks to Madeleine Laupheimer for research assistance. 62 UCLA L. REV. 1328 (2015)