Criticism of US IP imperialism (and shallow WSJ support) by Reuters and foreign Left-Keynesians
Says lefty Australian economist John Quiggin (whom I have referred to earlier in other contexts), in a piece titled “How the Americans stole the Ugg boot” (emphasis added):
The world would be a lot better off without intellectual property, or at least with a return to the more reasonable rules of the 19th century (14 years copyright, limited patents restricted to actual inventions, trademarks to identify products rather than to stifle competition) and the attempts of the US government to defend IP monopoly rights are one of the many reasons American “soft power” is such a perishable commodity.
Quiggin refers to a great piece in Reuters by Felix Salomon (“How the WSJ magazine fails its readers“) that responds to a WSJ puff piece on Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which, according to Quiggin, is an “American trademark troll company that has stolen the name ‘Ugg boot’ then used ‘intellectual property’ laws to impose the absurd claim that the only genuine Uggs are those made in China.”
Australians have apparently been making “Ugg boots” for decades, but now find themselves unable to promote such boots abroad; such is the ‘Uggly’ stuff that is fuelling a growing re-think of IP laws.
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