Patents Don't Pay

tarball_tinkerbell sends us to the NY Times for word on a book due out next year that claims that beginning in the late 1990s, on average patents cost companies more than they earned them. A big exception was pharmaceuticals, which accounted for 2/3 of the revenues attributable to patents. The authors of the book Do Patents Work? (synopsis and sample chapters), James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer of the Boston University School of Law, have crunched the numbers and say that, especially in the IT industry, patents no longer make economic sense. Their views are less radical than those of a pair of Washington University at St. Louis economists who argue that the patent system should be abolished outright.

Comments

Patents and the Left

[Charles Wilson]

Class.
Party.
Race.

The three pillars of Leftist thought are on display in a manner not seen since the 50's and even the 30's.
As you read about the manufactured "Health Care Crisis", consider the road to the Nationalized Socialist Health Care Scheme.
You will read about how the health of America is in the "hands of a few giant corporations." By implication, the Federal Government, the biggest of the giant corporations, will bring sweetness and light.

Hand in hand with the State extending its grasp on the economy through the control of Health Care and the resulting crushing increase in the tax burden is the assault on patent rights. The right to patent is in the Constitution and those who argue its demise should be seen as those who would literally destroy this society. It does not matter if a company or a person does not make a penny on a patent that is granted. What matters is that the right exists. PERIOD.

When Vespasian ended the Roman Civil War, Mucianus calmed the four very nervous factions of the assembled troops by reminding them that they all were bound by "the same oath to the same Caesar."

This is a very similar argument. The patent system guards against the State by placing power in the hands of individuals. There are those who have not learned from the Wars of the last century or even the last 2000 years.

But, the Left never learns, does it?

Charles

Re:Patents and the Left

[Charles Wilson]

Thank you for making my argument. You look at the "Landscape". I look at the "RIGHT of PATENT". Go to Google. Select "More". Select "Patents". Enter a product in the field. Look at the results. You will find that there is a PERSON who is granted the patent. He may assign the patent to some other entity but someone created that work. The Left is deeply aggrieved by this. "It should be done away with..." they say. "For the good of the people..." or other such nonsense. The purpose of doing away with the patent system is to promote State Power. "Leftist Thought: Making the world safe for Fascism." CW