Learning Objectives
\nAfter completing this section, you will be able to
\n\u2022 Describe the philosophical logic behind granting patents.
\n\u2022 Describe the role of patents in fostering invention.
\nDo Patents Really Promote Innovation?<\/p>\n
What Is a Patent?<\/p>\n
A\u00a0patent<\/b>\u00a0is a type of\u00a0intellectual property<\/a>\u00a0that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an\u00a0invention<\/a>\u00a0for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an\u00a0enabling disclosure<\/a>\u00a0of the invention. In most countries, patent rights fall under\u00a0private law<\/a>\u00a0and the patent holder must sue someone\u00a0infringing the patent<\/a>\u00a0in order to enforce their rights. In some\u00a0industries<\/a>\u00a0patents are an essential form of\u00a0competitive advantage<\/a>; in others they are irrelevant.<\/p>\n A patent is an intellectual property right granted by the government of a nation to an inventor that gives them the exclusive right to the invention for up to 20 years, in exchange for disclosing the details of the new technology to society for its ultimate benefit. In the United States, a patent is a legal instrument in the form of a document issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It gives the inventor of any new, useful, and non-obvious machine, process, manufacture, or composition of matter the right \u201cto exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States\u201d for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention.i A U.S. patent is only recognized domestically, and cannot be enforced in another country.<\/p>\n History of Patents in the United States<\/p>\n The legal foundation for U.S. intellectual property rights was laid by the Founders in 1787, in the very first Article of the U.S. Constitution, which outlined the precepts of our democratic society. In Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution, Congress was given the authority to \u201cpromote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries\u201d.<\/p>\n America was the first country in the world to enshrine intellectual property rights in its national constitution. And the Founders did this quite deliberately, says B. Zorina Khan, an economic historian at Bowdoin College whose book, The Democratization of Invention: Patents and Copyrights in American Economic Development, was awarded the Alice Hanson Jones Prize for an outstanding work in economic history.iii \u201cTo the men who gathered in Philadelphia to \u2018promote the general welfare,\u2019\u201d Khan wrote, \u201cit was self-evident that ideas, industrial and cultural inventions, and democratic values were integrally related. American democratic institutions would ensure that rewards accrued to the deserving based on [merit] rather than on the arbitrary basis of class, patronage, or privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the Founders viewed intellectual property rights as vital to the new nation\u2019s economic survival. As George Washington himself stated in his first annual address to Congress in 1790, \u201cThe advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all proper means will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement to the introduction of new and useful inventions.\u201d<\/p>\n The question is, with all the challenges they faced, why did the Founders think it so crucial to create a strong intellectual property system? Their reasons were both universal\u2014i.e., applying to all societies\u2014and also very particular to America\u2019s revolutionary experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"