Rothbard the Teacher
The first night of class, this little man with thick glasses perched on a Durantesque nose, sporting a bow tie and a pocketful of pens, shuffled into the room. He began talking the moment he stepped through the door.
IPWatchDog Patent Lawyer Sued by Invention Submission Corporation
Patent lawyer Gene Quinn has been sued
Fighting IP Absurdity: The South Butt Strikes Back
Remember when The North Face went after a college student and his company called “The South Butt“ for producing parody apparel?
South Butt David versus North Face Goliath
As Huebert notes in his post Fighting IP Absurdity: The South Butt Strikes Back, the saga of The North Face Apparel corp. vs. The South Butt continues. As noted on his attorneys’ website,
The South Butt is the local case of a Missouri teeanager, Jimmy Winkelmann, frustrated with his classmates’ sheep-like following of a popular clothing line. Jimmy came up with his own parody apparel and now faces a lawsuit for trademark infringement.
One ring to rule them all
Is JRR Tolkien part of our libertarian tradition?
Jeff Riggenbach thinks so.
This week’s episode of the Libertarian Tradition podcast is about Tolkien the anarchist (”philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs”) and the great classical-liberal historian Lord Acton.
And while we’re on the subject of Lord “power corrupts” Acton, this is from The Economist (January 21, 2010, print edition):
The Misesian Vision
The problem is that the capacity to imagine freedom is being eroded in our society and culture. The less freedom we have, the less people are able to imagine what freedom feels like, and therefore the less they are willing to fight for its restoration.
Austrian Business Cycle Theory and Global Crisis
Although ABCT provides a sound approach that is capable of explaining the origin of the financial crisis in the United States, it still needs further elaboration to explain its global depth.
Fear the Boom and Bust
Absolutely brilliant by GMU economist Russ Roberts. Indescribably great.
Copying Is Not Theft — remixed (song and video)
(Hat tip Jules Jeffrey)
Patent Lawyer Mostly Agrees With Me
In response to my Reducing the Cost of IP Law, my friend and ex-colleague (and mentor) Steve Mendelsohn, a patent lawyer in Philadelphia, wrote me the following. N.B.: Steve is not a libertarian but is honest and smart, unlike patent shills (he’s also an excellent patent attorney, if you need one). Here’s an edited version of his comments, posted with his permission (for comments from another honest patent lawyer, see here):
