In “A Connecticut Yankee in King Authur’s Court” Mark Twain makes an interesting argument for the importance of intellectual property protection. In it, the protagonist argues that no society can advance without a proper patent office. The sustained technological advancement of the last three centuries can be seen as a testament to IP laws, and the economic benefit inventors can derive from their ideas. Globalization is putting strain on these laws and increasing the friction between innovation and piracy. As Jordan Lee points out in this article, countries with the highest patent filings and strongest IP enforcement are also those with the strongest economies. As he says, “innovation plus protection equals prosperity.”