Naked Capitalism has the article David Quentin and Nicholas Shaxson: The “Patent Box” – Proof That the UK is a Rogue State in Corporate Tax.

Perhaps most importantly, it is the very existence of intellectual property rights that spurs innovation, so there is no need for them to have a special extra subsidy. However socially useful a patented technology may or may not be, a patent is a privately-held and transferable monopoly over the commercial exploitation of an idea, and that monopoly only exists because the state chooses to enforce it. Bringing into being and protecting such privately-held monopolies is a way for the state to reward human creativity. Owning such an asset is not something the state needs to subsidize with a tax break; simply owning it should be enough.

This article makes it clearer to me than it ever has been the nature of the fight to protect “intellectual property rights.”  You hear President Obama tout this protection in the trade deals he wants to foist on us.  He excoriates countries like China for not protecting our companies’ “intellectual property rights” inside China.  In fact, “intellectual property rights” has turned into another scam to allow the oligarchs to avoid their fare share of taxes.  They are using this as a weapon against us, and want us to fight for their ability to use it against us.