Reason on IP Protection and Creativity

Posted by michael on Saturday February 22, 2003 @08:06AM from the piling-on dept.

rnturn writes "A long but interesting article over at Reasononline discusses a paper written by a pair of economists and published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (!) and the reactions to it of several other economists. A snippet from the article: 'Moreover, U.S. court decisions in the 1980s that strengthened patent protection for software led to less innovation. "Far from unleashing a flurry of new innovative activity," Maskin and Bessen write, "these stronger property rights ushered in a period of stagnant, if not declining, R&D among those industries and firms that patented most."' Not exactly news to most readers but it appears that their paper is making waves in economic circles."

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Re:Patent not anything new idea's. by christopherfinke · 2003-02-22 08:15 · Score: 0, Redundant

Wow. They should patent that "not anything new" idea...
Sorry, but I've already patented the patenting of "not anything new" ideas.
Re:Eye Opener by Alien+Being · 2003-02-22 11:35 · Score: 0, Redundant

Few can give a rigorous proof, but anyone can say "duh!'.