OPIP: Other People's Intellectual Property

The Captains of Capitalism have a neat little rule. It goes like this:

What's your's is mine.
What's mine is mine.

This rule applies especially to Other People's Intellectual Property (OPIP) and more so if those other people are weak and incapable of defending themselves. "If thou can profit from depossessing a baby of its candy and yet avoid facing the outrageous arrows of litigation for thy transgressions, then do so. It profits one not to have a lesser bottom line."

Of course, one does not use violence to shift ownership away from the baby and into one's own pocket. These things must be done "delicately" as they say. A true Captain of Capitalism phrases it under the guise of righteousness:

It is essential that this legislation is adopted this year to help maintain our country's innovation leadership by reducing excessive litigation, limiting damages awards, and improving the quality of U.S. patents. (Locally, we're very proud of the hundreds of high-quality patents that IBM researchers in Vermont earned last year.)

The world is divided into two kinds of people: us and "them". The "them" are not truly deserving of anything. Whatever they claim to have invented, we would have invented first because it was obvious to us. Therefore, what's theirs is really ours you see. They merely abuse the court system to take away from us all the monies that are truly and rightly ours, only ours:

If a case does go to court, Sen. Leahy's bill would give judges and juries a more reasonable way to determine damages -- by figuring out how much the infringed intellectual property is really worth.

Nothing quite frankly. Besides, the "Them" should not really be allowed to go to court in the first place. Courts are places where only noble folk such as ourselves go to take more of what is truly and always was ours to begin with:

Until now, there has been no real alternative to the courtroom in which to hash out these controversies. If a company is found to be infringing someone else's intellectual property, court and jury-ordered awards can be huge, often out of proportion to the value of the patent. In fact, patent litigation yielded $3.4 billion in awards in 2006.
These litigation awards and legal expenses shouldered by businesses impose a kind of tax on our economy and products. Money that could be spent innovating is diverted to legal bills.
Consequently, Vermont companies, as well as other U.S. companies subject to these same pressures, may be rendered less competitive globally.

It is goooood to be a Captain of Capitalism. The world is our oyster.