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A Tale Of Sovereignty And Liberalism: The Lockean Myth Of Intellectual Property, Shaoul Sussman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The influence of John Locke’s thought upon the general legal perception of property rights cannot be overstated. Locke’s Labor theory of property holds that property originally comes about through individual exertion upon natural objects and that legal rights in the result of this labor are in fact property rights. The Lockean theory of property has dominated the Anglo-American legal discourse and is frequently used to justify various property regulation schemes. Despite this fact, many scholars have struggled to apply the theory to the field of intellectual property, and in particular to the field of patents and copyright. Many have attempted …