Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The Organizational Logic of Intellectual Property

This book challenges the conventional wisdom that robust enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights suppresses competition and innovation by shielding incumbents against the entry threats posed by smaller innovators. It argues that weak IP rights can be the best entry barrier the state can provide to protect entrenched incumbents against disruptive innovators.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 256 pages
\n Publication date: 24 February 2021
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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The prevailing belief in the conventional wisdom holds that the strict enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights stifles competition and innovation by providing a protective shield to incumbent companies against the threats posed by smaller innovators. This assumption has been the driving force behind largely successful efforts to weaken US patent protections for over a decade. In his book, Innovators, Firms, and Markets, Jonathan M. Barnett challenges this assumption by delving into the intricate relationship between IP rights, firm organization, and market structure. Barnett employs a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from tools and concepts from IP and antitrust law, institutional economics, and political science, as well as real-world understandings of technology markets and empirical insights from the economic history of the US patent system. Through his comprehensive framework, Barnett offers a novel perspective on IP policy analysis. He elucidates how robust enforcement of IP rights empowers entrepreneurial firms, often characterized by their abundant ideas but limited capital, to secure external investment and establish the cooperative relationships necessary to transform a breakthrough innovation into a commercially viable product. The historical trajectory of the US patent system and firms' lobbying tendencies underscore the significance of weakening patent protections as a means for entrants to challenge established incumbents with their formidable commercialization and financing capabilities. Counterintuitively, the book demonstrates that weak IP rights can serve as an effective entry barrier for the state to protect entrenched incumbents from disruptive innovators. By challenging prevailing assumptions and providing a robust integrated framework for understanding the dynamics of innovation and the role of law in shaping it, Innovators, Firms, and Markets offers valuable insights into how IP law influences our economy.

\n Weight: 494g\n
Dimension: 227 x 487 x 27 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780190908591\n \n