Justice Yates stated more than 200 years ago that:

“Ideas are free. But while the author confines them to his study, they are like birds in a cage, which none but he can have a right to let fly: for, till he thinks proper to emancipate them, they are under his dominion.” Millar v. Taylor, 4 Burr. 2303 (1769).

In 1859, Abraham Lincoln commented further that: “the patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius.” Using these statements explain the purpose of intellectual property laws.

Also, how do these laws balance the need to protect the property of “creators” through the granting of “monopolies” over their rights and the goal of free competition?