Can Patents Deter Innovation?
The “tragedy of the commons” metaphor helps explain why people overuse shared resources. However, the recent proliferation of intellectual property rights in biomedical research suggests a different tragedy, an “anticommons” in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other. Privatization of biomedical research must be more carefully deployed to sustain both upstream research and downstream product development. Otherwise, more intellectual property rights may lead paradoxically to fewer useful products for improving human health.
Related Questions
- What does "patents on software as such" (which is currently covered by copyright) have to do with the question that patents blocks independet innovation because software is different from technology?
- Why does the patent system affect the pharmaceutical industry differently?
- Do software patents actually encourage innovation?
