Author(s)
Source
Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 85, pg. 697, 2001
Summary
This article offers a new view of the benefits of the patent system.
Policy Relevance
Alternatives to patents, such as rewards, do not help innovators commercialize a product. Patents work something like property rights in protecting innovation. Patents can be tools for challenging monopoly.
Main Points
- Some observers have proposed alternatives to the patent system.
- One alternative would provide rewards to innovators.
- Another would be for the government to buy out innovators and put the ideas in the public domain.
- Neither alternative moves ideas all the way from capital investment to successful product, or helps determine which ideas are worth protecting.
- Patents work something like a property right, giving the innovator a right to restrict use.
- Patents can be tools for avoiding or challenging monopolies, which explains why strong patent laws are consistent with antitrust.