Optimal Patent Length and Breadth

Richard Gilbert and Carl Shapiro

RAND Journal of Economics, 1990, vol. 21, issue 1, 106-112

Abstract: In providing rewards to innovators, there is a tradeoff between patent length and breadth. This article provides conditions under which the optimal patent policy involves infinitely-lived patents, with patent breadth adjusting to provide the required reward for innovation.

Date: 1990
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (382)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0741-6261%2819902 ... O%3B2-2&origin=repec full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: Optimal Patent Length and Breadth (1989)
Working Paper: OPTIMAL PATENT LENGTH AND BREADTH (1988)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rje:randje:v:21:y:1990:i:spring:p:106-112

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://editorialexp ... i-bin/rje_online.cgi

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in RAND Journal of Economics from The RAND Corporation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().