Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8

Document 7

James Madison, Federalist, no. 43, 288

The utility of this power will scarcely be questioned. The copy right of authors has been solemnly adjudged in Great Britain to be a right at common law. The right to useful inventions, seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. The public good fully coincides in both cases, with the claims of individuals. The States cannot separately make effectual provision for either of the cases, and most of them have anticipated the decision of this point, by laws passed at the instance of Congress.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 3, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, Document 7
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s7.html
The University of Chicago Press

Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James; and Jay, John. The Federalist. Edited by Jacob E. Cooke. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.

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