Film: "Patent absurdity"

Posted Apr 19, 2010 10:47 UTC (Mon) by dark (guest, #8483)
In reply to: Film: "Patent absurdity" by drag
Parent article: Film: "Patent absurdity"

Have they proven this? Where, and when?

In their book Against Intellectual Monopoly, Boldrin and Levine examine a series of situations that should have demonstrated the innovation-boosting effects of patents, if there were any. They looked at countries before and after patents were extended to cover a field of business, and they looked at neighboring countries where one had patents and the other didn't.

In no case did they find increased innovation from patents. They did find cases where innovation went down, and some cases where the blooming of an entire industry was delayed until certain critical patents expired.

It seems obvious to me. The drawbacks of patents are easily visible, and the benefits remain speculative. Patents harm innovation by discouraging competition and imposing fees on incremental improvement.

Film: "Patent absurdity"

Posted Apr 20, 2010 8:05 UTC (Tue) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

thanks for the link, I will read through it (probably tomorrow)