Imperious Property | MoMA R&D Salon 38 | MoMA LIVE

We know the adage: intellectual property protection is intended to compel investment in R&D, enhance creativity, and spur innovation. We also know, however, that it can have the opposite effect, entrenching the power of few companies and limiting progress. International patents, for instance, stifled global access to vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. In one region, language, history, and cultural heritage may be the victims of erasure and foreign appropriation, in need of government protection. In another, they are used as rationale for invasion and war. It is happening now in Ukraine. And more granularly, some claim that cultural evolution has always been the product of someone else’s work. Pablo Picasso is, himself, credited with turning the phrase: “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” How does this sound in the age of IP, and further, repatriation, reparations, and restitution? Some questions we will pose in this salon include: What does it mean to protect intangible property? Can culture be