{"title":"Introduction: The Battle over the Surplus from Innovation","authors":"S. Haber, N. Lamoreaux","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197576151.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197576151.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Do patents facilitate or frustrate innovation? Our starting point for exploring this question is the recognition that patent systems are products of battles over the economic surplus created by innovation. The features of these systems take shape as contending interests at different points in the production chain seek advantage in any way they can, and consequently they are riven with imperfections. The most interesting intellectual issue is not how patent systems are imperfect, but why historically US-style patent systems with all their imperfections have come to dominate other methods of encouraging inventive activity. The essays that follow this introduction suggest that the creation of a tradable but temporary property right facilitates the transfer of technological knowledge and thus fosters a highly productive decentralized ecology of inventors and firms.","PeriodicalId":341122,"journal":{"name":"The Battle over Patents","volume":"174 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133250581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Patents in the History of the Semiconductor Industry","authors":"Alexander Galetovic","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197576151.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197576151.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Chips can be easily copied and semiconductor firms are not monopolies. Nevertheless, in the semiconductor industry patents protect Ricardian rents against free riding. Ricardian rents—rents wrought by a firm’s differential ability to produce more output or value per unit of input—remunerate the investments in R&D that semiconductor firms make in the expectation of profit. In addition, patents enlarge the set of business models, strategies, and contracts that firms can use to trade. Many practices that emerged over time—for example technical marketing, second sourcing, licensing, trade in intellectual property—and the observed evolution of horizontal and vertical specialization would not have been feasible without patents. Last, patents and Ricardian rents in the semiconductor industry conciliate protracted investments in R&D with exceptionally fast growth of multifactor productivity and falling prices over almost 70 years.","PeriodicalId":341122,"journal":{"name":"The Battle over Patents","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132405641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}