Patents

Dean Baker has a blog posting today which is fairly interesting. He provides a good rant about the adverse economic constriction of Patent protection, with the resultant high Cost of Drugs. Everything he states is relatively accurate, though he would call for Patent elimination as a restraint of Trade. I suggest the elimination is too radical, as it is a form of reward payment for innovators, where otherwise they might receive no compensation. Cancellation of an alternate form of Wage is never desirable.

The real culprit actually resides in federal Courts, specifically in their enforcement of the Patent provisions. What needs be altered is their decision that Patents remain the resident property of Companies who employ the Developers of a Patent. A more realistic (and much cheaper) decree would be the resident property of a Patent remains with the Developers throughout the extension of Patent life. Such a Patent determination decree would declare no non-human Entity can hold a Patent, due to relative inability of such to Organization to consciously design anything worth a Patent in the first place.

Patent rights would take their place besides Stock Options as incentives to do good work. Companies would have to negotiate with their own Employees to utilize Patent value, and Patent royalties will go down, as they express reluctance to overpay for Patent usage. The monopoly advantages of a Patent reduces in structure and content with being individualized, while Patent role as alternate means of Work payment continues. lgl