We hope by now to have convinced at least a few among you that there has been, there is, and there would be plentiful innovation in the absence of intellectual monopoly. We took this as our starting point because a widespread disbelief in the ability of competitive markets to reward innovators inhibits thinking about a functioning free market economy without intellectual monopoly.

After establishing that substantial amounts of money can be made, has been made, and is made by innovators in the complete absence of patents and copyright, the next fundamental doubt is, Is that money enough? It is quite a rhetorical question for the thousands of innovators who, absent legal monopoly, have nevertheless innovated: the money they expected to make must have been enough to motivate them. It is not necessarily such a rhetorical question, though, for potential innovators who chose not to innovate and for all those innovators who took advantage of intellectual monopoly in their activity. Because it is true that an innovator can generally earn more with a monopoly than without, so the profits made under competition may not be enough and some socially valuable innovations may not occur under competition. This – in principle – leaves room for government intervention to correct this market failure. Awarding intellectual monopoly is one possible form of intervention. Unfortunately, it is an especially pernicious form.

Economists and decent citizens alike are suspicious of monopoly. There are many good reasons for this.