Intellectual property lies—and theft: cons from con men, like Apple, that steal property from inventors. (Opinion)
by Seton Motley
Thieves lie—to advance their thievery. Because duh.
“Con Men”—is short for “Confidence Men.” Their objective—is to steal from you. To achieve their objective—they weave webs of lies to gain your confidence.
To wit: Look at the 1960 Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin flick “Oceans Eleven.” Or its 2001 George Clooney-Brad Pitt redux. The Eleven spend months and millions of dollars developing an incessant latticework of lies—to steal the casinos’ many, many millions of dollars.
It reminds me of something my father said: “People work ten times as hard to avoid work—as the amount of work they would have done if they had just done the work.”
An so it is with Intellectual Property (IP)—and the Con Men who insist on stealing it.
Apple’s Con
To wit: Multi-trillion-dollar monster Apple spent years and millions of dollars—in court defending their theft of patented tech from Qualcomm.
Tech for which Apple had signed contracts—in which they had agreed to pay Qualcomm for the tech.
Apple engaged in this preposterous exercise—to avoid paying less than $20 per $800+ device.
Because Apple was hoping to set the precedent—of no one ever again paying people who invent things.
Which will destroy our economy.
Think that’s a little overwrought? It is not.
Imagine if we stole all the food from the people who grow and raise it. No one would ever again grow and raise it.
Because why would they put the time and money into growing and raising it—if there is zero return on doing so?
Because human nature. Because duh.
Growing IP is no different. Because human nature. Because duh.
And no one ever again inventing anything—is almost as bad as the food thing.
‘Patent Trolls’ Don’t Exist
Another monstrous lie told in pursuit of universal IP theft? The thieves’ “patent troll” con. And here yet another lie is revealed.
We were told the exceedingly awful, woefully misnamed America Invents Act (AIA) would “tackle” “patent trolls.” That hideous, anti-patent legislation became law—in 2011.
Why, then, do we still have “patent trolls” to “tackle?”
You actually can’t “tackle” “patent trolls.” Because they do not exist.
[As I previously wrote in] “While We’re Lost in The ‘Patent Troll’ Freakout, ‘Reformers’ Will Eviscerate Private Property Rights“:“(The anti-patent) ilk frequently and feverishly screech ‘patent troll.’
“But to paraphrase Inigo Montoya:
“‘You keep using that phrase—I do not think it means what you think it means.’
“What exactly is a ‘patent troll?’
“He or she is someone who owns a patent—which is private property. And is trying to protect their private property from unauthorized use by someone who doesn’t want to pay to use it.
“Is someone who owns a house and calls the police to roust squatters a ‘property troll?’
“Is someone who reports their car stolen an ‘automobile troll?’”
Of course not.
But why would the Con Men let that stop them? [I wrote]:
“Congress passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) in 2011 to address patent troll litigation and alleviate fears that low-quality patents were eroding confidence in the patent system.”
[Additionally, I wrote in] “Warning: PTAB Is Hazardous to America’s Competitive Health“:“The 2011 America Invents Act created PTAB. It was spun as a faster, cheaper alternative to federal court. Proponents claimed there were all these ‘weak’ patents being exploited in a purported litigation explosion.”
So many lies…: “84 percent of patents that PTAB reviews are invalidated entirely or in part. By contrast, federal courts invalidate about 30 percent of challenged patent claims.”
Patents invalidated—are patents stolen.
And then less than a decade later—this happened….
It’s almost difficult to believe:
“(T)he cumulative toll it all has taken—is heinous.
“‘The U.S. Drops Out of the Top 10 in Innovation Ranking:
“‘The U.S. dropped out of the top 10 in the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index for the first time in the six years the gauge has been compiled….The index scores countries using seven criteria, including research and development spending and concentration of high-tech public companies.’
“The late Ayn Rand rightly observed:
“‘We can ignore reality—but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.’”
The Con Men’s many lies—are anti-reality.
The damages done by our acting upon their many lies—are very real.
Originally published by Less Government. Republished with permission.
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