Topic: Satire
Eminent Domain Let's Really Use it for the Greater Good Eminent domain is the ability of the government to take property and use it for the greater good. An example is taking a person’s land to build a new highway on it. The word property doesn’t always mean land physical property; it can include contracts, copyrights and patents.by Adam Rink
(libertarian)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Eminent domain is the government's ability to take property and use it for the greater good. An example is taking a person's land to build a new highway on it. The word property doesn't always mean physical property; it can include contracts, copyrights and patents. The government took intellectual property during WWI when it took vacuum tube patents and put them in a public pool. Owners were reward from the licensing pool and out of this, other inventors created FM radio.
Today, it seems the government is eager to take property and give it to major corporations. Such acts would be projects like the Texas Trans Corridor or a natural gas line in Oregon. Wouldn't it be ironic if the government took a patent from a major corporation for the "greater good?"
When GM and Toyota were building an EV (electric vehicle) car to meet future California emission requirements in the late 1990s, they needed a good battery. A company called Ovonics's created a NiMH battery. GM acquired part of the company and when the EV project was discontinued, they sold their share to Texaco. A few days later Texaco was acquired by Chevron. The old GM joint venture was renamed to Cobasys. Chevron (Cobasys) promptly sued Toyota and Panasonic over a similar battery technology. Chevron won the case; thus, allowing Chevron to have the sole patent for EV (plug-in NiMH batteries). Cobasys even got to collect royalties from Toyota on some of the hybrid batteries and 30 million dollars in damages. Toyota has been trying to license the technology for a plug-in vehicle ever since, but Cobasys has been unwilling to sell or license the technology.
Cobasys is providing batteries for some hybrids today such as GM's Malibu and Verizon to upgrade their vans to hybrid vehicles. Too bad we do not see the EV vehicles or a hybrid that plugs in with this technology today. To think, it's been over 10 years since these plug-in EVs were leased in California, and we do not even have that technology available on a gas electric today.
McCain wants to end an 18 cent federal gas tax, and Obama is calling for win-fall profit taxes to lower gas prices. No one seems willing to use the government to rob a corporation for the public good. If the government is willing to steal land to solve a highway problem and pump more natural gas to California, it would make sense that the government would be just as willing to steal a patent. This patent would curb money going overseas to countries that don't like us, slow inflation and help us become less entangled around the world. I guess a win-fall tax that ends up filtering down to the consumer is better because the government gets more revenue. Of course, what good is the redistribution of money to new technologies if the technologies can never reach the market because of patent?
NOTE:
I hate eminent domain and think that it should never be used. It is the government taking property, basically stealing. I also believe in anti-trust laws that stop monopolies from gouging consumers. Patents and copyrights, while they have good intentions are being abused. They are now a tool for companies and organizations to control markets, not for individuals to protect their works and earn a living. It is hard to believe in a free market when tools exist to prevent it from being free. Technology should flow. If Xerox had patented the first personal computer and sat on it so that no one else could make one because they wanted to sell copiers, we might not have a computer today. I fear other countries because they will not obey these patent laws. They will develop electric vehicles and power them with nuclear power while our economy drowns with oil prices.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Adam Rink only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Adam Rink is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Patents protect the intellectaul property for a period of years. After this period is expired, the rights to the patents are public. So the only protection a patent gives is the monopoly of a technology for a period of time so that the inventor has time to make a return on their investment before everybody else copies it and improves it with cheaper development. The develoment for a copy is cheaper because somebody else already proved it. It is always cheaper to create a copy than to create an original. If the patent holder does not sell the rights or does not develop the technology, that is stupid because at some point it expires and others will make money off the technology. Nevetheless, by making some changes, a competitor can create a similar technology without infringing on the original patent.
Although patents and trademarks could be considered government intrusions, it protects private property to a certain extent.
Wild. I like where this is going, even though I disagree with most eminent domain. It is sad that the big players get to play the system while the little guys get burned.
But what would happen if, just once, the tables turned?
1. Patent law does NOT protect squatters; Chevron, if anyone wished to fight them, would be forced to license the NiMH patents to Toyota for a reasonable fee. That's the point of patents: use them to increase wealth, not use them to bolster the oil monopoly on auto transportation. The fact that government quails before Big Oil just shows how little they care for the public, and how timid or suborned they are.
2. Toyota-Panasonic's unit PEVE improved NiMH beyond the original formulation. By relentless testing and process improvement, they found the right combination of Vanadium, Titanium and rare earth elements to increase lifetime, lower cost and allow charging at high temperature. It was to suppress the Toyota improvements (called "Gen 2" NiMH technology) that Chevron's unit cobasys sued. And it never came to trial, it was a settlement agreement; if Toyota had fought Chevron, they had a legal basis, but Chevron and its other Standard Oil allies are much too powerful even for Toyota to buck.
I absolutely agree that Eminent Domain should be used to release the power of the NiMH batterty. I just finished reading a REALLY informative ahd helpful book which made me believe this topic is more important than ever. Its called "Two Cents Per Mile" by Nevres Cefo. The author has also set up a website where you can mail representatives acting them to act on this at http://www.dcmonitor.com
(the book can be found on amazon... http://www.amazon.com/Two-Cents-per-Mile-President/dp/0615293913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246544529&sr=1-1 )
I can't stress enough how important it is to become informed on this topic.
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