Economists generally agree that innovation is important to economic growth and that government support for innovation is necessary. Historically, the U.S. government has supported innovation in a variety of ways: (1) a strong legal system for patents; (2) direct support through research...

This article traces the historic development of specific tax rules governing intangible intellectual property rights. Before the enactment of specific tax rules governing intellectual property, considerable diversity of opinion among the courts existed over the application of traditional tax...