Click here to view original web page at brownstone.org
The legend is that patents are a just reward for new inventions. The reality is that they are government grants of monopoly privilege for industrial interests. What began as a royal privilege left over from feudal times mutated into a right of anyone to deploy the power of the state to block competitors and thus exercise monopoly pricing power based on a statutorily determined amount of time.
For centuries, patents have been debated as to their social and economic merit. That they inhibit competition is beyond dispute. Not even those who reverse engineer a product have the right to produce and sell the results. The only question is whether such interventions are truly necessary to incentivize innovation.
In the case of pharmaceuticals, the justification is a bit different. It has surrounded the supposed need to cover the high costs of research and regulatory compliance. Industries need compensation lest their entire industry becomes unprofitable and we all suffer a lack of medical advances.
None of this pertains in the case of the Covid shots. Moderna received fast-track regulatory approval and $10 billion in tax subsidies for its mRNA innovation. Even then, it claimed the right to demand exclusive rights to its formulas. During the pandemic – during which time the company also enlisted governments and private business into forcing consumers to accept its product – it agreed to forego its claims.
Now that the pandemic is over, and the demand for the shots has plummeted worldwide and vaccine mandates scrapped, Moderns is suing Pfizer for stealing its intellectual property. The court fight could last years, at the end of which they will likely settle and redistribute their loot.
On top of that, both are publicly-traded corporations that made enormous profits off the pandemic, while the jury is still out on whether and to what extent […]
They’re Trying to Shut Us Down
Over the last several months, I’ve lost count of how many times the powers-that-be have tried to shut us down. They’ve sent hackers at us, forcing us to take extreme measures on web security. They sent attorneys after us, but thankfully we’re not easily intimidated by baseless accusations or threats. They’ve even gone so far as to make physical threats. Those can actually be a bit worrisome but Remington has me covered.
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Thank you and God bless!
JD Rucker