SVG
Reports
The Heritage Foundation

The Patent System: America’s Innovation Engine

Adam Mossoff
Adam Mossoff
Chair, Forum for Intellectual Property and Senior Fellow
The United States Supreme Court is shown after members of the court issued major rulings on cell phone privacy and copyright law June 25, 2014, in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee via Getty Images)
Caption
The United States Supreme Court is shown after members of the court issued major rulings on cell phone privacy and copyright law June 25, 2014, in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee via Getty Images)

Summary

A consistent, strong correlation, if not a causal relationship, exists between property rights in inventions (patents) and growing innovation economies and flourishing societies. This is not surprising, because it is the same relationship that economists, historians, and social scientists have long identified between reliable and effective property rights and economic growth. If they are secured as property rights in a political and legal system with stable institutions like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and courts of law that are governed by the rule of law, patents will continue to serve as essential factors in technological and economic progress.

Key Takeaways

  1. The U.S. has eviscerated the patent rights that help to power the innovation engine that drove its past technological and economic revolutions.
  2. Economic and historical evidence demonstrates that reliable and effective patents function like all property rights in promoting economic growth and innovation.
  3. The U.S. has shown the world that patents facilitate technological and economic progress. We should do everything we can to keep it that way.

Read the full report in The Heritage Foundation.