Copyright and Patent Clause; Intellectual Property Clause

In the founders’ words

• “The utility of this power will scarcely be questioned. The copyright of authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great Britain, to be a right of common law. The right to useful inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of individuals.” James Madison, The Federalist No. 43 (1788-01-23)
• “If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.” Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson, August 13, 1813 (1813-08-13)

Public-domain primary sources, quoted word for word and checked against the linked text.

Leading Supreme Court cases

• Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991)
• Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003)

Cite this page

Values for America Constitution Explorer, https://www.valuesforamerica.com/constitution (text: National Archives transcription, public domain), Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, https://www.valuesforamerica.com/constitution/article-1/section-8/clause-8

Data: this provision as JSON.