The Case Against Patents
10th July 2018
The case against patents can be summarized brieflfly: there is no empirical evidence that they serve to increase innovation and productivity, unless productivity is identifified with the number of patents awarded—which, as evidence shows, has no correlation with measured productivity. This disconnect is at the root of what is called the “patent puzzle”: in spite of the enormous increase in the number of patents and in the strength of their legal protection, the US economy has seen neither a dramatic acceleration in the rate of technological progress nor a major increase in the levels of research and development expenditure.