The Hill Blog: Attacks on patent system are unfounded, by Robert L. Stoll
This post originally appeared in The Hill Blog on October 22, 2015.
Our patent system has spurred American innovation for more than 200 years and led to strong economic growth and job creation. Unfortunately, the patent system has come under unfounded attacks that are often cited to justify upending the patent system. These attacks have been disproven by recent studies.
A recent white paper by David Kappos and Aaron Cooper debunks the oldest and often repeated criticism that software patents create insurmountable barriers to market entry and should be eliminated. Throughout their paper, Kappos and Cooper reveal mistakes in recent studies that aim to discount the importance of software patents to innovation. They also point to the success of new companies like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Venmo in disrupting industry players and achieving astronomical success. The rise of these cutting-edge companies is evidence itself that software patents are creating new economic opportunities.