Forbes Opinion: Fostering Innovation Requires Fixing the Patent System, by Wayne Winegarden
This post originally appeared in Forbes on November 1, 2017.
Designing a 21st century patent system is a difficult task that requires balancing many competing interests. For example, the patent system must strike the right balance between empowering competition, and providing a sufficient reward to entrepreneurs from bearing the large risks associated with innovation.
Skewing the patent system in favor of invention will impose excessively high costs on consumers for current products. But, skewing the patent system in favor of imitation will deny consumers the benefits of products and services they do not yet recognize that they cannot live without.