Patent inom andra områden än läkemedel kostar 3 ggr mer än det smakar, och bör därför avskaffas

Det är vad juridikprofessorerna James Bessen och Michael Meurer kommer fram till i sin bok "Patent Failure" i en studie av amerikanska patent. Vi får väl hoppas att den nedåtgående ekonomin i USA kan ge argument att reformera patentsystemet

New empirical research by Boston University law professors James Bessen and Michael Meurer, reported in their book, "Patent Failure," found that the value of pharmaceutical patents outweighed the costs of pharmaceutical-patent litigation. But for all other industries combined, they estimate that since the mid-1990s, the cost of U.S. patent litigation to alleged infringers ($12 billion in legal and business costs in 1999) is greater than the global profits that companies earn from patents (less than $4 billion in 1999). Since the 1980s, patent litigation has tripled and the probability that a particular patent is litigated within four years has more than doubled.

Läs mer: Information Age - WSJ.com