IP owners show no shame in seeking out additional advantages from their monopolies and what they can get away with. The self-styled English newspaper (anywhere else in the world it is called a magazine), Economist (no The), informs us that patent owners in the 27 members of the EU are after a single patent grant to cover all the members link here. They plead that the extra costs make it too expensive for small companies to register their patents, thus stifling innovation. They also object to the differing interpretations that the various patent granting authorities make. Good points only if one accepts that patents are a good thing, rather than a means to extract monopoly profits and impede innovation. Anybody want to bet that they won't get their way?

Can we stop calling patents IP? No one should own a concept. Limiting what people are "alowed" to do is just a massive mistake made by the US that will be viewed by future generations much the way we view gladiators today. It's barbaric and unenlightened.

I think we should call patents "patent monopolies," which reflects what they are. Similarly, copyrights should be called "copyright monopolies."