Innovation and its discontents : how our broken patent system is endangering innovation and progress, and what to do about it / Adam B. Jaffe and Josh Lerner ; with a new preface by the authors.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jaffe, Adam B.

Contributor:

Lerner, Joshua.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Patent practice--Economic aspects--United States.

Patent practice.

Patents--United States.

Patents.

Technological innovations--United States.

Technological innovations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 p.)

Edition:

With a New preface by the authors

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2007, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The United States patent system has become sand rather than lubricant in the wheels of American progress. Such is the premise behind this provocative and timely book by two of the nation's leading experts on patents and economic innovation. Innovation and Its Discontents tells the story of how recent changes in patenting--an institutional process that was created to nurture innovation--have wreaked havoc on innovators, businesses, and economic productivity. Jaffe and Lerner, who have spent the past two decades studying the patent system, show how legal changes initiated in the 1980's converted the system from a stimulator of innovation to a creator of litigation and uncertainty that threatens the innovation process itself. In one telling vignette, Jaffe and Lerner cite a patent litigation campaign brought by a a semi-conductor chip designer that claims control of an entire category of computer memory chips. The firm's claims are based on a modest 15-year old invention, whose scope and influenced were broadened by secretly manipulating an industry-wide cooperative standard-setting body. Such cases are largely the result of two changes in the patent climate, Jaffe and Lerner contend. First, new laws have made it easier for businesses and inventors to secure patents on products of all kinds, and second, the laws have tilted the table to favor patent holders, no matter how tenuous their claims. After analyzing the economic incentives created by the current policies, Jaffe and Lerner suggest a three-pronged solution for restoring the patent system: create incentives to motivate parties who have information about the novelty of a patent; provide multiple levels of patent review; and replace juries with judges and special masters to preside over certain aspects of infringement cases. Well-argued and engagingly written, Innovation and Its Discontents offers a fresh approach for enhancing both the nation's creativity and its economic growth.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Preface

Introduction: They Fixed It, and Now It's Broke

Chapter 1. Today's Patent System at Work

Chapter 2. The Dark Side of Patents

Chapter 3. The Long Debate

Chapter 4. The Silent Revolution

Chapter 5. The Slow Starvation

Chapter 6. The Patent Reform Quagmire

Chapter 7. Innovation and Its Discontents

Notes

Index

Notes:

"Third printing, and first paperback printing, with a new preface by the authors, 2007."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613133380

9781283133388

1283133385

9781400837342

1400837340

OCLC:

730151759