Sequential innovation, patents, and imitation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bessen, James; Maskin, Eric
• 署名单位: Boston University; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0741-6261
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-2171.2009.00081.x
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 611-635
• 关键词: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; ECONOMICS; patentability

摘要

We argue that when innovation is sequential (so that each successive invention builds in an essential way on its predecessors) and complementary (so that each potential innovator takes a different research line), patent protection is not as useful for encouraging innovation as in a static setting. Indeed, society and even inventors themselves may be better off without such protection. Furthermore, an inventor's prospective profit may actually be enhanced by competition and imitation. Our sequential model of innovation appears to explain evidence from a natural experiment in the software industry.