Ayn Rand's discussion of patents and copyrights is for the most part excellent. She correctly notes that governments do not "grant" such rights, but merely certify and protect them. Unfortunately, she fails to recognize one logical conclusion from her argument—namely, that if an invention is developed independently by two or more parties, then all of them have legitimate rights to patent their creations. Focusing on the fact that only one party can obtain the patent "first," Rand conflates temporal precedence with originality. See Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (New York: New American Library, 1967), 130-4 (more information).