A Research Framework on Intellectual Property and Morality

This chapter traces the role of morality in intellectual property (IP) law by outlining the scholarship that addresses what extent, if any, the law does or should reflect moral judgments. Scholars have investigated this question, either explicitly or implicitly, in all of the categories of IP including patent law, trademark law, and copyright law, and to a lesser extent, trade secret law and right of publicity law. In surveying the robust scholarship and diverse perspectives about whether morality has a place in IP law, the chapter reveals an academic dispute surrounding the degree to which law should rely on morality. Some scholars look at IP through the lens of morality; some see only a disconnect between IP law and morality. For some, morality serves as a basis for IP rights, while others find law and morality to be so conceptually distinct as to be irreconcilable. Some see a danger in IP laws being in conflict with morality, while others view the introduction of morality as a danger. The chapter organizes the scholarship by the position it takes on the appropriateness of the juxtaposition of IP and morality while recognizing that the complexity of IP scholars’ relationship to morality is matched only by the complexity of morality itself as a concern of law.