Patent Failure

How Judges,
Bureaucrats,
and Lawyers
Put Innovators at Risk


by James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer

Princeton University Press
March 2008

Synopsis

Chapters

  1. Introduction: The Argument in Brief

  2. Why Property Rights Work, How Property Rights Fail

  3. If You Can’t Tell the Boundaries, Then It Ain’t Property

  4. Survey of Empirical Research: Do Patents Work as Property?

  5. What Are US Patents Worth to their Owners?

  6. The Cost of Disputes

  7. How Important is the Failure of Patent Notice?

  8. Small Inventors

  9. Abstract Patents and Software

  10. Making Patents Perform as Property

  11. Reforms to Improve Notice

  12. Conclusion: A Glance Forward

  13. References

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