Incidentally, in Kelo, the company that benefitted from the city's high-handed seizure of property was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

The Americas column in today's WSJ (subscription required) notes:

Brazil . . . is moving to force foreign drug makers to surrender their patents on anti-AIDs drugs at a price dictated by Brasilia, a tiny fraction of the medicine's value.

Unfortunately for the cause of poetic justice, Pfizer patents are not mentioned -- the proposed legislation names Abbott Labs, Gilead Science, and Merck. Perhaps these companies should send a note of sarcastic thanks to their fellow pharma firm for undermining the principles of property rights on which the entire industry depends -- but, on the other hand, these companies did not jump to defend Ms. Kelo, nor did any other IP-dependent company.

Guys, rights are continuous, especially the right to own and use property, whether tangible or intangible. Let governments, whether influenced by money or demogoguery, take someone else's rights today and they will take yours tomorrow (or this afternoon - the world is speeding up).

Furthermore, this one is just too juicy to be forgotten -- Kelo will be cited against the pharma industry forever, whenever it argues the importance of its property rights in patents.

" therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..." [John Donne, Meditation 17 (1624).]

posted by James DeLong @ 8:26 AM | Physical Property

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