Author(s)
Jonathan S. Masur
Source
John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Papr No. 393, 2009
Summary
This paper looks at benefits from fees and bureaucratic hurdles at the patent office.
Policy Relevance
If patents were easier to get, nuisance lawsuits might multiply.
Main Points
- Patent examiners do a remarkably poor job of screening out invalid applications, and the examination process is very expensive.
- Many reform proposals seek to improve the quality of patent review and reduce the cost.
- The high costs of getting a patent actually have important benefits.
- Applicants reveal how much value they think their innovation has.
- The process stops applicants from collecting patents for the main purpose of filing lawsuits to extract nuisance settlements from commercial firms willing to pay the filers to go away.
- Expensive administrative processes also screen out similar problems in landlord-tenant and employment law, environmental permitting, and immigration law.
- The private costs of the navigating the process may pose a more effective barrier to entry than the process itself.
