As we discussed in the first week of class, the main reason that we have patents is to foster innovation. The idea is that a manufacturer cannot simply enter the market with a copy of what already exists, but must instead innovate a new and better product to avoid patent infringement, resulting in a continuously evolving market.
But patent and trademark law have also resulted in the "patent wars" that are now becoming common in the electronic mobile device market. This led me to think about how beneficial patents really are for innovation, at least in the smartphone market. It's true that large companies such as Apple have separate legal departments to take care of this, so that their engineers aren't distracted. But this is still lots of money and executive time and effort that is being funneled into lawsuits rather than technology. And in the end, both sides end up paying lawyers money that could have gone to developing new technologies or hiring more engineers. But I suppose the real question is: do the customers really receive a better product? If we didn't have patent wars, would the end user be better off, using a far superior device? I think that probably yes. But what if we didn't have patent law at all? Then the question becomes a little more difficult to answer.
i understand where you're coming from but i also think that if patents do not exist, companies wouldn't develop technology at all. it's like how we benefit from well defined property rights in the current state of economy / society. it's like the starting point of efficient production.
ReplyDeleteI like this post a lot. It's very similar to one that I wrote. I think an important thing to realize is that the patent issue differs greatly from industry to industry. In the medicine business, huge overhead in research and development necessitates legal protection. Despite this, it is interesting to imagine what the business world would be like without patents. Would people stop innovating? Probably not, but I'm sure the methods of innovations and publication would be much different.
ReplyDeleteI think that patent wars certainly impact the quality of the products that are available to users. Samsung had to pay over $1 billion to Apple as a result of that lawsuit, so just imagine what awesome products we would have gotten if that money had gone into R&D or engineering. So although patents are necessary in the industry, I do think that some limits should be put on them to make sure these frivolous patent lawsuits don't impede technological progress.
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