A December 2014 study estimated that in 2013, the core copyright industries contributed $1.1 trillion dollars to U.S. GDP, accounting for 6.71 percent of the U.S. economy. And businesses dependent upon patents contribute billions of dollars each year to the country’s GDP. In other words, intellectual property rights play an outsized role in sustaining and growing our nation’s economy.

Given the size of the economic impact, perhaps it should not be surprising that the boundaries of certain intellectual property rights are subject to dispute, especially as technological changes affect business models and marketplace demands. For example, there are often debates regarding the length of copyright and patent terms, the scope of “fair use” for copyright and enforcement mechanisms for claimed infringement of intellectual property rights.