Patents in a world of complex technologies

Don E Kash and William Kingston

Science and Public Policy, 2001, vol. 28, issue 1, 11-22

Abstract: The changes brought about by the Patent Act of 1952 were needed to adjust the administration of patents to the reality that invention and innovation now primarily result from investment rather than from individual creativity. An unintended result of these changes has been to make it difficult for firms in most non-chemical technologies and especially smaller firms involved in the innovation of complex technologies to obtain the protection they need. Also, denying firms in complex technologies the power to operate patent pools has forced them to multiply their patents as bargaining chips: these large numbers of interlocking patents effectively bar entry by newcomers to complex technologies, thus reducing competition. Reforms are possible and they could enable the patent system to fulfill its proper function in relation to complex technologies and transform the economic climate for small-firm innovation, replacing the patent system's present emphasis on serving large firms in simple technologies. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Date: 2001
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