Thieves Everywhere: America’s Rising Concern Over Intellectual Property

Shloka Ramshankar
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Bill Gates once said, “Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.” Essentially, the billionaire was implying that the patents companies possess over certain products are extremely short-lived. The people at the top are always looking to develop a newer, more improved patent and competition is a constant threat. As a refresher, I’ll mention that this term basically is associated with the legal binding of things like copyright, trademarks, designs, and as I said before, patents. Of late, both the private and public sector are expressing similar sentiments over so called “theft” of intellectual property; indeed the legal jargon is inspiring increased competitive spirits.

Let’s discuss the private sector, specifically my favorite growing industry of self driving cars. Since February, an ongoing legal battle has been raging between a Google offshoot company called Waymo and the popular transportation service of Uber. I won’t go too in depth with the details, but I’ll lay out the basics. Waymo is accusing Uber of stealing intellectual property about self-driving technology from an ex-Waymo employee. Uber initially did hire the employee but has long fired him, after he refused to cooperate when Waymo brought up the lawsuit. In the short term, Uber will predictably lose its spot at the forefront of the autonomous vehicle race with this lawsuit and already messy corporate politics posing as obstacles. In the future, I foresee companies becoming more guarded than ever about research and development of any products whatsoever. Along with the legal precedent, I say that this case will also set a cultural precedent of defensiveness. However, this is just the domestic, private sector side of things.

Considering America’s international and more public sector, sentiments are only similar. President Trump recently authorized a statement against Chinese theft of American intellectual property and also announced plans to take combative action. Again, we can observe a defensive commonality in the President’s rhetoric. In comparison to the previous example of the private sector, Mr. Trump’s remarks are a bit more protective and address his larger interests for our country, if anything.

So is there a correlation between these two attitudes? Both the tech company lawsuit and the Executive’s language were motivated by different reasons and are developing on different fronts. However, defensive mindsets are becoming a common theme in today’s ever-evolving digital world. My belief is that both incidents will significantly contribute to the rise of regulation in both the private and public sector setting. Furthermore, as I mentioned in my previous article, the rising field of data science will play an immense role in the process of regulating online information.

As the news develops and intellectual property continues to be disputed, it will be up to us to determine if there really are thieves everywhere.



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Shloka Ramshankar

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