Software jobs probably don't benefit from "intellectual property" all that much. If you risk treble damages for "willful" patent infringement (or whatever the extra damages are), you're not going to look at software patents. You're going to invent that wheel for yourself. There's also some evidence that Silicon Valley works better than the Boston area because programmers only produce company's "intellectual property" on the clock. After hours, whatever you do in California is yours. Also California doesn't enforce non-compete agreements.

So I don't think the situation is as simple as strong "IP" protections are thought to benefit the USA economy. Unless you're a big faith-based believer in "IP".