This post is a response to the question [“Are intellectual property laws more valuable in the United States since we are one of the top innovative countries in the world?"] (https://ecency.com/gradnium/@reagan.sturges/week-06-questions-intellectual-property) posted by @reagan.sturges
Is there anything left that is truly new?
According to Google, Earth has been around for about 4.543 billion years (1). In this span of time, there have been many discoveries about life, religion, and reality. Although we may never discover or truly understand everything in this world, I strongly believe that almost everything in this world to our human ability has been noted and understood in some sort of way. Nothing is original anymore. Inventions that emerge from the cracks are just oozing from the tiny cracks that were there before. The ideas that run throughout minds are created and stimulated by the senses of our own bodies. Visually seeing something can trigger something else in our brain to fire. This leads to ideas. So in reality doesn't that make everyone thieves? If no idea is original anymore we are all stealing ideas in some form, however, the difference between stealing and copying, is that stealing makes it your own, adds your own personality to it. Developing it beyond what it originally was until it seems as if it became something new, something innovative. While copying, you leave the idea as it was found. No development is considered and you know that it is still the same thing, except you take the credit.
The Innovative United States.
With all of this being said, I do not believe that intellectual property laws are more valuable to the United States. I do not believe that we necessarily believe that utilizing laws to deem another country better than the other is a good way to look at things. Yes, we are progressive and new ideas and freedoms are spread within the United States every day, but even the new hip app TikTok was not invented in the United States. Much like the space race, I believe that the intellectual property laws regarding politics and world powers are just a way to make another country seem as if they have more control and power than other countries. Although we do have a lot of technology and information that some developing countries have, I do not believe that we are the only ones who have access to this technology and advancements. One person in the United States could have the same thought that someone in another country had years ago, but because there was one person who jumped the gun with funds to get it passed as a patented idea, the other man becomes discredited.
I hear you and I think it certainly feels as though nothing is new and original anymore, however, we know that there are brand new approaches in medicine, vaccine development, cancer treatments, and so on. We also occasionally find new products (largely technologically driven) in the marketplace. Because there is so much copycatting going on and lots of products arriving on the scene as upgrades to prior versions of themselves, with slight tweaks in design, functionality and scope, it certainly feels as though we are in a period of creative stasis at times. This is probably why when genuinely new ideas hit the shelves, the excitement is palpable and demand for them goes through the roof! :-)