> the utilitarian view would focus on benefiting everyone That's the precisely the general tenor of the Jeffersonian view, according to a canonical Supreme Cou

> the utilitarian view would focus on benefiting everyone That's the precisely the general tenor of the Jeffersonian view, according to a canonical Supreme Court opinion, Graham v. John Deere Co. of Kansas City, 383 U.S. 1 (1966), starting at page 7 of the opinion [1]. Here's an excerpt (with the Court's citations omitted and emphasis and extra paragraphing added): <QUOTE> Thomas Jefferson, who as Secretary of State was a member of the group [three Cabinet officials who served as what might be thought of as the first U.S. patent office], was its moving spirit and might well be called the "first administrator of our patent system." He was not only an administrator of the patent system under the 1790 Act, but was also the author of the 1793 Patent Act. In addition, Jefferson was himself an inventor of great note. His unpatented improvements on plows, to mention but one line of his inventions, won acclaim and recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. Because of his active interest and influence in the early development of the patent system, Jefferson's views on the general nature of the limited patent monopoly under the Constitution, as well as his conclusions as to conditions for patentability under the statutory scheme, are worthy of note. Jefferson, like other Americans, had an instinctive aversion to monopolies. ... Jefferson's philosophy on the nature and purpose of the patent monopoly is expressed in a letter to Isaac McPherson ... He rejected a natural-rights theory in intellectual property rights and clearly recognized the social and economic rationale of the patent system. The patent monopoly was not designed to secure to the inventor his natural right in his discoveries. Rather, it was a reward, an inducement, to bring forth new knowledge. The grant of an exclusive right to an invention was the creation of society—at odds with the inherent free nature of disclosed ideas—and was not to be freely given. Only inventions and discoveries which furthered human knowledge, and were new and useful, justified the special inducement of a limited private monopoly. Jefferson did not believe in granting patents for small details, obvious improvements, or frivolous devices. His writings evidence his insistence upon a high level of patentability. As a member of the patent board for several years, Jefferson saw clearly the difficulty in "drawing a line between the things which are worth to the public the embarrassment of an exclusive patent, and those which are not." ... </QUOTE> [1] http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9105652591497305710 http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9105652591497305...