Stanley v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.

TRAYNOR, J, Dissenting.

Abstract ideas are common property freely available to all. What men forge out of these *673ideas with skill, industry, and imagination, into concrete forms uniquely their own, the law protects as private property. It gives the special form the stamp of recognition; it does so to stimulate creative activity. It does something more to stimulate creative activity: it assures all men free utilization of abstract ideas in the process of crystallizing them in fresh forms. For creativeness thrives on freedom; men find new implications in old ideas when they range with open minds…