Strengthening IP Enables Human Creativity and Economic Mobility | IPWatchdog Unleashed

In this week’s episode of IPWatchdog Unleashed, I speak with Megan Carpenter, who just recently stepped down as Dean of UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law after more than eight years.

Our conversation was part personal journey and business philosophy together with a candid assessment of the IP ecosystem. We tackle emerging issues, including AI’s impact on legal practice and education. And we discuss the role of IP as essential to sustaining innovation in a rapidly evolving global economy, and fostering human creativity, innovation, and economic mobility.

From Crisis Management to Institutional Rebuild

As previously mentioned, Carpenter recently stepped down after more than eight years as Dean of the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, a tenure that dramatically exceeds the modern law-school dean average of two to three years and coincided with a period of significant institutional turnaround. When she arrived, Franklin Pierce was facing declining enrollment, weakened alumni engagement, and a loss of focus around its historical IP mission.

Under Carpenter’s leadership, the school re-anchored its IP identity, rebuilt authentic alumni relationships, expanded practical and globally oriented educational offerings, and reversed enrollment trends. Applications more than tripled, entering class sizes reached historic highs, and alumni participation and giving surged—including multiple seven-figure gifts last year. The message was clear: focus, credibility, and execution matter.

But Carpenter was equally candid that rebuilding is a different skillset than maintaining. Having stabilized and repositioned the institution, she recognized that her strengths lie in building systems, restoring trust, and tackling hard problems—particularly those that sit at the intersection of IP, innovation, and global development. So, it was time for a new adventure, but only after she makes a long-postponed trip to Tanzania to attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro this February.

IP as Infrastructure for Human Creativity

If there was a central theme of the discussion it was that intellectual property provides the legal infrastructure that enables and supports human creativity, innovation, and economic mobility. We do acknowledge that intellectual property suffers from a serious messaging and credibility gap largely because the compelling argument for strong IP unfortunately requires a story and explanation, while the misguided “weak IP is best” movement can fit its narrative onto a bumper sticker.

We rejected simplistic narratives that frame IP as harmful, arguing instead that weak IP systems disproportionately hurt small innovators, creators, and underrepresented communities. We both also agreed that weak enforcement, efficient infringement, and diminished remedies have distorted incentives, pushing innovators toward litigation instead of productive licensing and collaboration, which in the end has been like a wet blanket on the industry.

Putting the Smack in Smackdown

Carpenter traced her own IP journey from trademark and entertainment law—most notably her work with World Wrestling Entertainment. She told the story of a young person who had obtained an infringing domain name, and how she sent a cease and desist letter, to which he responded that she really “put the smack in SmackDown”, but years later she would learn his brush with IP inspired him to go to law school and become an IP attorney.

After eventually becoming somewhat disillusioned with IP as the result of playing a role in the closure of an independent jazz label, she made a deliberate pivot into international human rights and academia. That transition ultimately reframed IP for her, not as an abstract legal construct, but as a practical tool for enabling participation in markets, building trust, and creating opportunity.

We both emphasize during our conversation that IP rights are not ends in themselves; they are mechanisms that allow innovators to enter ecosystems, transact, collaborate, and build sustainable enterprises. Without enforceable rights, there is no meaningful bargaining power—and without bargaining power, innovation stalls or never leaves the lab. IP is a powerful tool to uplift disadvantaged communities and give them the opportunity to build something.

The Messaging Failure Around IP

We are blunt in our assessment of the IP community’s ongoing messaging problem. Anti-IP slogans fit neatly on bumper stickers. Pro-IP realities do not. The result is a public discourse that routinely ignores the role IP played in everything from COVID-era pharmaceutical development to cultural production, technological progress, and economic mobility.

The conversation highlighted a critical disconnect—society celebrates innovation outcomes while simultaneously undermining the legal frameworks that make those outcomes likely, or even possible. Rebuilding trust in IP systems requires sustained education, better storytelling, and a refusal to concede the narrative to oversimplified critiques that often mislead, or at least only tell half the story.

Efficient Infringement and a Broken Incentive Structure

Our discussion also addressed the structural dysfunction in U.S. patent enforcement, particularly the way diminished remedies have normalized efficient infringement. I was direct: when injunctions are off the table and large damages awards are routinely cut down, rational actors will infringe first and then fight later—or not at all if the owner doesn’t have the resources to mount an enforcement campaign.

This “infringe first” reality—which is understandable legal advice given the relative weakness of patents in the United States—provides all the wrong incentives if system efficiency and sustainability matter. “Infringe first”, which is often called efficient infringement, just pushes patent owners toward litigation as the only viable option, rather than arm’s-length licensing negotiations. This outcome is the opposite of what a well-functioning IP system should produce and leads to enormous inefficiency. Markets work best when parties are incentivized to transact voluntarily. Litigation is a system failure, not a goal.

Patent pools, licensing platforms, and alternative market mechanisms were discussed as partial solutions—but only if the underlying legal system restores meaningful consequences for infringement. Without that baseline, even the most creative licensing models struggle to gain traction.

AI, Legal Education, and the Next Generation

We turned our attention to artificial intelligence and its implications for legal practice and education. We both rejected alarmist claims that AI will replace lawyers or invent autonomously. Instead, we emphasized that AI’s real power lies in synthesis, analysis, and scale—and that the competitive advantage will belong to those who know how to use it effectively.
A key takeaway from our discussion about AI is that prompting is a skill, and law schools are behind the curve. Graduates are already being asked about AI fluency in interviews, yet many institutions still prohibit the use of AI tools. Carpenter argued that failing to teach students how to work with AI is not principled restraint—it is professional malpractice.

The future, we agreed, belongs to hybrid teams: experienced practitioners paired with younger lawyers fluent in AI tools, data analysis, and emerging workflows. Those combinations will outperform firms and organizations that resist adaptation.

Rebuilding Trust in IP Systems

IP professionals occupy a uniquely privileged position. We are not only creators and strategists, but enablers of other people’s creativity. With that privilege comes responsibility—to strengthen institutions, defend incentives, and expand access to opportunity. Strengthening IP systems, rebuilding public trust, and expanding opportunity—especially for smaller innovators and underrepresented communities—are essential to sustaining innovation in a rapidly evolving global economy.
Carpenter’s next chapter remains unwritten, but her focus is clear: building trust in IP systems, strengthening global innovation ecosystems, and tackling challenges that demand both legal rigor and imaginative thinking. And, as I noted, intellectual property is everywhere—and getting it right has never mattered more.

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