Matt Ridley’s thought provoking WSJ Saturday Essay: The Myth of Basic Science
“Patents and copyright laws grant too much credit and
reward to individuals and imply that technology evolves by jerks. Recall that
the original rationale for granting patents was not to reward inventors with
monopoly profits but to encourage them to share their inventions. A certain
amount of intellectual property law is plainly necessary to achieve this. But
it has gone too far. Most patents are now as much about defending monopoly and
deterring rivals as about sharing ideas. And that discourages innovation.
The economist Edwin Mansfield of the University of
Pennsylvania studied the development of 48 chemical, pharmaceutical, electronic
and machine goods in New England in the 1970s. He found that, on average, it
cost 65% as much money and 70% as much time to copy products as to invent them.
And this was among specialists with technical expertise. So even with full
freedom to copy, firms would still want to break new ground. Commercial
companies do basic research because they know it enables them to acquire the
tacit knowledge that assists further innovation.”