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2025
Book Article
Title
Introduction to A Modern Guide to Patents
Abstract
Innovation and technical progress owe a lot to the patent system (e.g. Moser, 2013). While it is difficult to say what would have happened without a patent system in place, it is a safe assumption that, without patents, it is likely that there may not be such exponential development of innovation, economic progress, and standard of living as experienced over the last centuries. The patent system allowed inventors to share technological knowledge and to build on the innovative work already done by others (see Kitch, 1977). It arguably enabled innovation by encouraging, protecting, and rewarding inventors and, later, through disclosure, enabling other inventors to build on the foundations already established. Nevertheless, there are still critical voices challenging the benefits of the patent system and pointing to its costs (e.g. Mazzeloni and Nelson, 1998; Boldrin and Levine, 2013).
There is certainly a constant need to adjust the patent legislation to make it relevant and responsive to current and emerging research, innovation, and intellectual property trends (e.g. Encaoua et al., 2006). Important in this context is understanding the logic of patents as a regulatory tool to promote innovation, and why patents were introduced in the first place. Patents can be considered a social contract. Rights holders get an exclusive right of use over the patented technology and thus receive a privileged temporary market position. In exchange for this privilege, rights holders must release the patented technology into the public domain by publication of the patent file. Patents are a regulatory instrument that incentivizes and rewards those who take risks to invest in research and development. This understanding expresses a purely utilitarian approach (cf. Hettinger, 1989). Consequently, from this perspective, patenting must be assessed from the point of view of resilience and adaptation to ongoing business and technological trends, and to what extent it can create an environment that is supportive of innovation under a specific set of parameters. From an economic theory point of view, patents are a second-best.
There is certainly a constant need to adjust the patent legislation to make it relevant and responsive to current and emerging research, innovation, and intellectual property trends (e.g. Encaoua et al., 2006). Important in this context is understanding the logic of patents as a regulatory tool to promote innovation, and why patents were introduced in the first place. Patents can be considered a social contract. Rights holders get an exclusive right of use over the patented technology and thus receive a privileged temporary market position. In exchange for this privilege, rights holders must release the patented technology into the public domain by publication of the patent file. Patents are a regulatory instrument that incentivizes and rewards those who take risks to invest in research and development. This understanding expresses a purely utilitarian approach (cf. Hettinger, 1989). Consequently, from this perspective, patenting must be assessed from the point of view of resilience and adaptation to ongoing business and technological trends, and to what extent it can create an environment that is supportive of innovation under a specific set of parameters. From an economic theory point of view, patents are a second-best.
