Yesterday afternoon NC State Professor Steve Margolis provided an education on the profits of infringement. Ah, the economics of various legal rules designed to accomodate litigation of copyright and trademark. It makes the heart sing.
Specifically, Margolis addressed the Shaftsbury Society on opposing legal rules or tests developed by two leading law and economics jurists, Richard Posner and Learned Hand. For those of you who missed the luncheon but have an interest, Margolis prefers the more limited, specific, rule proposed by the late Judge Hand over the more expansive, full absorbtion rule of University of Chicago Professor and 7th Cir. Judge Posner.
Trademark and copyright rules may seem far afield of our everyday life but taxes are always close — pardon the weak pun — at hand. And so, herewith I share a favorite passage from Learned Hand’s opinion in a 1934 case, Helvering v. Gregory. He makes clear that the burden of proof should always be on the state to explain why a taxpayer should pay more.
Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes […]
