Dave Chappelle is probably the biggest comedian on Planet Earth. He has built a professional situation for himself in which he can do…basically whatever he wants – whenever he wants.
As big as he is, Chappelle still vividly remembers being small. At age fifteen, Chappelle had already been working the comedy clubs for about a year – but was not yet the titan he would grow to become.
And it was at that point – at that young age – that a man physically bigger than him bullied him out of his Intellectual Property (IP). Specifically, Chappelle’s material was stolen. Here he is describing the incident:
“(The man) goes ‘Let me buy that joke from you for fifty dollars.’ And I said ‘Man, I’d do it – but I’m just starting out and I need all the material I can get.’
“The idea being: The more material I can accumulate – the faster I’ll be able to make money from my work.
“I said ‘I can’t do it – I want my joke back.’
“I’ll never forget this. Remember, I was a fifteen-year-old child. This guy was a grown a** man. He stood up over me – so I could see how big he was – and he said to me: ‘Really? I can just take it.’
“And he did. I got scared. Because I was a child. But I never forgot that. I was fifteen-years-old – I’m forty-seven now. I think about this guy all the time. When I look at my own kids and see how young and innocent they are – I can’t believe that someone did that to me.”
This is the Little Guy Inventor – being bullied by a much bigger person. The Little Guy – being forced to hand over his creation to the bigger guy. Might – making right. Which ain’t right.
For those who follow the IP Wars in DC – this should sound very familiar.
DC should be on the side of the Little Guy Inventor. Protecting the creator and his creations. But DC isn’t in the business of doing what’s best for the country – it is the business of doing what’s best for DC.
DC has institutionalized the bullies’ theft of IP. Writing laws and creating institutions that favor the Big Thief.
How the America Invents Act Harmed Inventors
How the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Harms Inventors
And some of the biggest IP thieves of all – are Big Tech companies. You know, the biggest companies in the history of Planet Earth.
Big Tech Has an IP Theft Problem
The US Has Institutionalized Big Tech’s Intellectual Property Theft
Why has DC done all of this? Because in DC, bigger means more money. More money – means more campaign contributions…and bigger salaries for crony gigs when DC’s denizens leave government and go to work for the crony companies for which they provided crony government assistance.
Big Business Loves Big Government: Cronyism in American Politics
Big Tech Lobbying and Campaign Spending Soars
Revealing Study of ‘Revolving Door’ Between US Government and Big Business
Corporate Cronyism: How Big is the Revolving Door?
The Obamas’ $50 Million Netflix Deal: Cronyism Comes Full Circle
DC has certainly royally crony-ed up the IP system.
Patent Office Ex-Chief, Judges Face Suit Over ‘Rigged’ IP System:
“An Obama-era Patent and Trademark Office director and group of former and current tribunal judges are being accused of stacking the intellectual property system against inventors….
“Computer engineer Martin David Hoyle, owner of B.E. Technology LLC, said the PTAB proceedings were ‘tainted by various improprieties and underhanded tactics, designed to stack the deck against them and in favor of their far more powerful opponents.’
“‘The system had been rigged all along,’ Hoyle said in the complaint….
“The PTAB has been subject to several legal challenges in recent years.”
Yeah – including at the Supreme Court:
“The Court ruled these Executive Branch (PTAB) judges are illegal – because they are in the Executive Branch. But then posited as a ‘solution’ – having another member of the Executive Branch review their rulings.
“The Court’s ‘solution’ adds another layer of unconstitutional bureaucracy. It does not provide a remedy for the unconstitutionality the Court its own self identified.”
And so there the PTAB still stands. Along with the America Invents Act – and all of DC’s other anti-IP acts and actions.
Because no matter how wrong DC is proven to be? As long as they are being paid by the wrong-doers to be wrong – the wrongness will always continue.
So Little Guy Inventors like Dave Chappelle get ripped off by the Big Thieves. Over and over and over again.
And DC is on the side of the Big Thieves.
Because that’s fair.