Patents grant inventors exclusive monopoly rights to make use or sell the patented subject matter, or to authorize its sale/making/use, and to exclude others from selling/making/using the patented product. This monopoly is justified by the grant of exclusive rights in exchange for disclosure made by the applicant in their application, which must be sufficient to enable a person skilled in the art to reproduce the patented technology. Ideally, this facilitates research and development of new and improved technologies as the information becomes free to use upon expiry of the patent.
On one hand, patents promote innovation by incentivizing researchers to stay ahead of the market in developing new technologies and obtaining patents for them. This competition benefits society as a whole as better technologies are produced that would ideally improve people’s general standard of living. However, on the other hand, patents can create financial and procedural impediments to research, development and commercialization of new technologies. They may increase the cost of research as researchers are required to clear patent rights in order to realize their work, for example through the need to clear the use of patented reagents, methods or devices.
This problem affects collaborations between research institutions. Technologies that rely on collaborative agreements between multiple entities are often vulnerable to being held hostage by any of the parties, which creates difficulty in the implementation of research, development and commercialization of new innovations. Patent critics argue that patentholders’ monopoly power over the market creates issues of accessibility and “supracompetitive” pricing, effectively excluding consumers who would have otherwise been able to purchase the patented products if the market was fairly competitive.
Additionally, the rise of Patent Trolls, otherwise known as Patent Assertion Entities have raised concerns as they do not necessarily provide any technological advancement as their core focus is not on exploiting the patents they acquire, but rather to enforce the patents, by litigation or threat of litigation, against producers and manufacturers who are producing that may possibly be infringing on the acquired patents, regardless of the strength of the patent or the strength of the infringement claim. This can disrupt the process of making new technologies available to the public.
In conclusion, while patents can be a powerful tool in promoting innovation and protecting the rights of inventors, they also have the potential to create financial and procedural barriers to research, development and commercialization of new technologies. It is important for us to consider the balance between protecting the rights of inventors and ensuring that new technologies are accessible to all.
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