Berkeley Law

The federal intellectual property system serves as a principal means of promoting “progress in Science and useful Arts” through the provision of limited monopolies to authors and inventors. By this logic, enhancing the scope or enforceability of intellectual property rights increases the expected reward to those engaged in intellectual work, thereby spurring intellectual creativity and the exploitation of works. Inversely, impediments to the enforcement of the intellectual property rights or limitations on remedies reduce this reward stream and opportunity for exploitation, thereby dampening the incentives of those who engage in creative enterprise.