THE DIRTY little secret about American patents is that they are too easy to file, too easy to defend, and too easy to use for nobbling legitimate competition. The patents exploited last year to extract $612m from Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail gizmo, would have barely passed muster in another country. Nor would Vonage, the internet-telephony pioneer, have had to cough up $58m recently for infringing three unbelievably broad patents if they had been filed in Europe or Japan instead of America.
Patent law exists to encourage inventors by granting a monopoly for a limited period (now 20 years) in exchange for publishing their work so others can see how it affects their own innovations. Implicit in the deal is a trade-off between private incentive and public good.
Of late, the balance in America has been tipped too much in the patent-holder's favour. In the process, American consumers have paid dearly through their loss of choice. The country's competitiveness has also suffered, as one innovative idea after another has been squelched, neutered or withdrawn from the market because of the threat of patent litigation.
http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/techview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9134111
Patent law exists to encourage inventors by granting a monopoly for a limited period (now 20 years) in exchange for publishing their work so others can see how it affects their own innovations. Implicit in the deal is a trade-off between private incentive and public good.
Of late, the balance in America has been tipped too much in the patent-holder's favour. In the process, American consumers have paid dearly through their loss of choice. The country's competitiveness has also suffered, as one innovative idea after another has been squelched, neutered or withdrawn from the market because of the threat of patent litigation.
http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/techview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9134111
