Few topics in recent years have aroused as much interest among libertarians as intellectual property. What place, if any, would IP — patents, copyrights, trademarks and the like — have in a libertarian society? Ayn Rand and her Objectivist followers view IP as the most basic of all property rights. Diametrically opposed are those who say, “You cannot own an idea”: ideas are not in the economic sense scarce goods and thus property rights in them are at odds with the purpose of property rights, avoiding conflict over the use of such goods. Still others shift the argument from rights to the benefits and costs of IP. Does IP promote valuable inventions and creativity, or does it impede them?