Read former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement's New Paper on the Constitutional Purpose of Patents

With "Patent Rights vs. Property: The Framers’ Understanding of Patents," former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement explores what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they included patent law in the founding of the country. While there has been a recent movement to categorize patents among natural law or common law property rights, Clement argues that patents are government-created privileges or franchises to serve the public interest.