- | Healthcare Healthcare
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Waiving IP Protection for COVID Vaccines Is Anti-Innovation and Anti–Public Health
Read more at National Review.
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Chinese IP ‘theft’ doesn’t justify Trump’s tariffs
Donald Boudreaux writes that accusations of IP theft by China don't justify the tariffs driving the U.S.-China trade war.Read it
- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
Interpreting CDA Section 230 and its Future
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was mostly an attempt to restrict and control certain objectional Internet content. But

- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Policy Briefs Policy Briefs
How the United States Should Respond to China’s Intellectual Property Practices
The United States and China are approaching a critical point in a dispute over China’s practices on intellectual property (IP)
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Altering China's behavior without the use of costly tariffs
Daniel Griswold proposes alternatives to tariffs to change China's economic behavior.Read it at The Hill.
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
A Patently False Excuse for Tariffs
Chinese IP theft is sometimes used as a justification for Trump's tariffs. Don Boudreaux explains why that explaination doesn't
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Peter Navarro’s Conversion
Pierre Lemieux responds to the changing beliefs of Peter Navarro, a trade advisor to the president of the United States.
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
In a Trade War, Everyone Loses
Trade tensions with China show no sign of resolving themselves. The US administration seems to believe that China has more to
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
The China Threat?
In a recent post for Seeking Alpha, Scott Sumner calls into question an assumption made by an article at the Financial Times
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Let's Transfer More Technology to China
Is it dangerous, as some critics suggest, for China to acquire new US technology? Scott Sumner says 'no.' He argues at Seeking
- | Urban Economics Urban Economics
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous
The advent of the digital age has had nearly ennumerable benefits for consumers. We have greater access to books, music
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Three Ways to Deal with China's Unfair Trade Practices
The Trump administration just upped the ante on a looming trade war with China by announcing a new 10 percent tariff on $200
- | International Freedom and Trade International Freedom and Trade
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Telling the Truth on Trade with China
We hear quite a bit of misleading rhetoric against China these days. Let's grant, for argument's sake, that the Chinese

- | Financial Markets Financial Markets
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
What We’re Reading: February 23, 2018
Here’s a quick round-up of some of the links shared by Mercatus Center scholars this week:Brian Knight warns that relying on the
- | Regulation Regulation
- | Data Visualizations Data Visualizations
The Number of Patents Has Exploded Since 1982, and One Court Is to Blame
This week’s chart shows the sharp increase in the number of patents over the past three decades, using data from the US Patent and Trademark Office to display the total number of patents that have been extended from 1900 to 2014.

- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Journal Articles Journal Articles
The True Story of How the Patent Bar Captured a Court and Shrank the Intellectual Commons
Libertarians intuitively understand the case for patents: just as other property rights internalize the social benefits of improvements to land, automobile maintenance, or business investment, patents incentivize the creation of new inventions, which might otherwise be undersupplied.
- | Academic & Student Programs Academic & Student Programs
- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Research Papers Research Papers
How Many Jobs Does Intellectual Property Create?
In the past two years, a spate of misleading reports on intellectual property has sought to convince policymakers and the public that implausibly high proportions of US output and employment depend on expansive intellectual property (IP) rights. These reports provide no theoretical or empirical evidence to support such a claim, but instead simply assume that the existence of intellectual property in an industry creates the jobs in that industry.
- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Books Books
Intellectual Privilege
Intellectual Privilege reveals copyright as a statutory privilege that threatens our natural and constitutional rights. From this fresh perspective comes fresh solutions to copyright’s problems.

- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Working Papers Working Papers
Video Marketplace Regulation: A Primer on the History of Television Regulation and Current Legislative Proposals
In a study for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, “Video Marketplace Regulation: A Primer on the History of Television Regulation and Current Legislative Proposals,” scholars Adam Thierer and Brent Skorup review television distribution rules and regulations, their negative effects on the market, and the various proposals for reform. While most congressional proposals for reforming video regulation only address the symptoms of overregulation, or worse, propose to expand these regulations, some proposals take a more comprehensive approach to reforming the extensive regulatory regime for video distribution. Entrepreneurs and consumers would benefit from removing or reforming much of the current regulation of the video distribution market.

- | Academic & Student Programs Academic & Student Programs
- | Technology and Innovation Technology and Innovation
- | Working Papers Working Papers
Public Choice and Bloomington School Perspectives on Intellectual Property
We mine two underexplored traditions for insights into intellectual property: the public choice or Virginia school, centered on James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, and the Bloomington or Institutional Analysis and Development school, centered on Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom. We apply the perspectives of each school to issues of intellectual property and develop new insights, questions, and focuses of attention. We also explore tensions and synergies between the two schools on issues of intellectual property.