The results of these court decisions will determine the shape of the new economy. This huge wave of patent and copyright litigation has been set off by two trends. The first is the increasing commercial importance of good ideas, which are starting to be more valuable than physical assets. Now, it's usually clear who owns a factory or a machine. But it's often difficult to tell who owns an idea.
Some new ideas are nothing more than colors, tastes, or smells.
The second thing behind this wave of litigation is digital technology, which is making it easy for almost anyone to copy almost anything and distribute it to almost anybody. As a result, it's become hard to distinguish between neighborliness and theft. And the list of cases goes on. You see, at the very core of capitalism lies the idea of private property. Without property rights there's no economic incentive for anyone to invest in creating anything.