131
muokkausta
Muutokset
p
The connections of
In the specific case of Watt, the granting of the 1769 and
And Blackberry itself is not
Emotions run high
abound in the
Our perspective on patents and
As we will argue at length, theoreticalBoldrin & Levine: Against Intellectual Monopoly, Chapter 1
ei muokkausyhteenvetoa
unnecessary monopoly – but to no avail.
1
Watt’s partner Boulton were too solid to be defeated by simple
principle.
governments routinely granted monopolies to favored courtiers?
That is the question we seek to answer.
especially of the 1775 patents likely delayed the mass adoption of
the steam engine: innovation was stifled until his patents expired;
prevented anyone else from using, and improving, the idea of
combining a crank with a flywheel.
Also, we see that Watt’s inventive skills were badly
allocated: we find him spending more time engaged in legal action
been first, despite the fact that their competitors had had thirty
years to learn how to make steam engines.
The wasteful effort to suppress competition and obtain
special privileges is referred to by economists as rent-seeking
of what we shall refer to as Intellectual Property-inefficiency, or IP
inefficiency for short.
Finally, there is the slow rate at which the steam engine
was adopted before the expiration of Watt’s patent. By keeping
steam engines, Boulton and Watt hampered capital accumulation
and slowed economic growth.
The story of James Watt is a damaging case for the benefits
of a patent system, but we shall see that it is not an unusual story.
protection is obtained, it is primarily used as a tool to prevent
economic progress and hurt competitors.
While this view of Watt’s role in the industrial revolution
may appear iconoclastic, it is neither new nor particularly original.
network – over a patent dispute.
9
without sin: in 2001 Blackberry sued Glenayre Electronics for
infringing on its patent for “pushing information from a host
dispute over the sharing of copyrighted files.
11
on both sides. We have the anti-copyright slogan “information just
wants to be free” promoted by some civil libertarians. On the other
for coming up with a worthy commercial idea”
15
business, legal and economic press. As we shall see there are many
other ways in which innovators are rewarded, even substantially,
writings and discoveries.”
18
copyright is a similar one: promoting the progress of science and
the useful arts is a crucial ingredient of economic welfare, from
for the music rights.
19
12
arguments alone cannot tell us if intellectual monopoly increases
