Eminent domain is the government's ability to take property and use it for the greater good. An example is taking a person's land to build a new highway on it. The word property doesn't always mean physical property; it can include contracts, copyrights and patents. The government took intellectual property during WWI when it took vacuum tube patents and put them in a public pool. Owners were reward from the licensing pool and out of this, other inventors created FM radio.

Today, it seems the government is eager to take property and give it to major corporations. Such acts would be projects like the Texas Trans Corridor or a natural gas line in Oregon. Wouldn't it be ironic if the government took a patent from a major corporation for the “greater good?”

When GM and Toyota were building an EV (electric vehicle) car to meet future California emission requirements in the late 1990s, they needed a good battery. A company called Ovonics's created a NiMH battery. GM acquired part of the company and when the EV project was discontinued, they sold their share to Texaco. A few days later Texaco was acquired by Chevron. The old GM joint venture was renamed to Cobasys. Chevron (Cobasys) promptly sued Toyota and Panasonic over a similar battery technology. Chevron won the case; thus, allowing Chevron to have the sole patent for EV (plug-in NiMH batteries). Cobasys even got to collect royalties from Toyota on some of the hybrid batteries and 30 million dollars in damages. Toyota has been trying to license the technology for a plug-in vehicle ever since, but Cobasys has been unwilling to sell or license the technology.

Cobasys is providing batteries for some hybrids today such as GM's Malibu and Verizon to upgrade their vans to hybrid vehicles. Too bad we do not see the EV vehicles or a hybrid that plugs in with this technology today. To think, it's been over 10 years since these plug-in EVs were leased in California, and we do not even have that technology available on a gas electric today.

McCain wants to end an 18 cent federal gas tax, and Obama is calling for win-fall profit taxes to lower gas prices. No one seems willing to use the government to rob a corporation for the public good. If the government is willing to steal land to solve a highway problem and pump more natural gas to California, it would make sense that the government would be just as willing to steal a patent. This patent would curb money going overseas to countries that don't like us, slow inflation and help us become less entangled around the world. I guess a win-fall tax that ends up filtering down to the consumer is better because the government gets more revenue. Of course, what good is the redistribution of money to new technologies if the technologies can never reach the market because of patent?

NOTE:

I hate eminent domain and think that it should never be used. It is the government taking property, basically stealing. I also believe in anti-trust laws that stop monopolies from gouging consumers. Patents and copyrights, while they have good intentions are being abused. They are now a tool for companies and organizations to control markets, not for individuals to protect their works and earn a living. It is hard to believe in a free market when tools exist to prevent it from being free. Technology should flow. If Xerox had patented the first personal computer and sat on it so that no one else could make one because they wanted to sell copiers, we might not have a computer today. I fear other countries because they will not obey these patent laws. They will develop electric vehicles and power them with nuclear power while our economy drowns with oil prices.

References:

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