Thanks in part to data-hungry artificial intelligence and growing anger over foreign and domestic intellectual property abuses, fixing the IP system is more topical than ever.
Among debaters, IP is a hotter topic than even Nuclear Weapons Reduction.
Following a year-long discussion involving 38 state organizations and dozens of individual representatives, “Should the U.S. government strengthen IP rights?” has been selected as the topic for the 2024-2025 debate competition by The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
The IP topic was selected over “Nuclear Weapons Reduction” by a 25-17 vote in the final balloting process. In addition to NHFS and state debate associations, helping to determine the outcome included the National Speech and Debate Association, the National Catholic Forensic League, the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues and the Nation Debate Coaches Association.
In the Intangible Investor on IPWatchdog, I wrote “inclusion in this prestigious competition is music to the ears of IP organizations and creators, which have long encouraged wider awareness of the purpose and impact of IP rights and campaigned for more student exposure.”
More than 7,000 students participate in the completion annually.
Changing the Public Narrative
“This is a clear indication that innovators and creators are succeeding in changing the public narrative about the role of IP rights in innovation economies and flourishing societies,” said Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University, an innovation policy expert and a member of the board of directors of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU).
“This is a first-time topic for the national high school debate competition,” Dr. James Weaver, an NFHS executive told CIPU. “IP is a growing area of interest to creators, businesses and society. It’s being fueled by the volume of digital rights and complexity of ownership and will play an increasing role in future careers.”
Another factor, suggests Dr. Weaver, may have been the timeliness of artificial intelligence. With generative AI models “scraping” data from diverse public sources they do not own or license, and other content like music and likeness under attack, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets have become more central. March-in rights that neutralize patents and undermine innovation are also front and center.
“What good IP behavior looks like for a business or consumer remains a mystery,” writes CIPU Chairman and Co-Founder Bruce Berman in IPWatchdog. “Lawful IP behavior is not necessarily ethical behavior. It leans towards increasing shareholder value, but at what cost?”
“Inclusion in this prestigious competition is music to the ears of IP organizations and creators, which have long encouraged wider awareness of the purpose and impact of IP rights and campaigned for more student exposure.”
Debaters are typically encouraged to conduct original research in support of their position. For students today that means extensive use of Google Search, which has inherent IP biases, as does generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT.
IP Information Sources
It will be interesting to see what information is provided to students in support of stronger intellectual property rights, or not, and how it is presented to students, many of whom are unacquainted with IP rights.
The selection of IP rights to debate competitively among thousands of high school students is a big step in the right direction. Supporters of IP certainty and judicial fairness will be eager to see how it is interpreted and which debaters’ arguments resonate loudest.
For students and others who want a fast, fair and quick overview of IP rights and how they operate, CIPU has created IPBasics.org, an essential IP information portal. IPBasics.org provides background, curated by a multi-disciplinary team of IP, business, invention and content industry professionals.
The website is a beginning, not an end. It enables a range of users from entrepreneurs to educators, students and creators to obtain a quick IP overview, while providing access to noteworthy pages of other sources, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and World Intellectual Property Office content.
Image source: NFHS
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