The U.S. Patent System vs. Innovation

Eric Von Hippel, professor of technological innovation at MIT, in an interview with The New York Times:

“It’s a bad scene right now. The social value of patents was supposed to be to encourage innovation — that’s what society gets out of it. The net effect is that they decrease innovation, and in the end, the public loses out.”

Yes, the patent system is supposed to reward the innovators themselves, but it is also supposed to benefit the public interest.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010