Trolls and Other Patent Inventions

The “patent controversy” of the twenty-first century reflects claims that patent institutions are in crisis, and new developments in technology markets require departures from traditional approaches to property rights. The historical record sheds light on the nature and validity of these assertions. Patterns over the course of two centuries regarding patent grants, litigation rates, and intermediaries or “nonpracticing entities” suggest that these features of the market for ideas are hardly anomalous. Indeed, they have always been characteristic of the disruptive technologies that propelled the United States toward global industrial leadership.