Intellectual Property and the Patent Marketplace

Innovation benefits consumers through the development of new products, processes and services that improve lives and address unmet needs. It is key to meeting society's greatest challenges in areas as diverse as energy production, communications and health care, and it is essential to sustained economic growth and global competitiveness. But innovation is a complex process. It involves a series of steps from idea to invention through development to commercialization, each of which can be expensive, risky, and unpredictable. The goal of the patent system is to promote innovation in the face of that expense and risk. This book begins by examining the role of technology markets and patent markets in innovation today. Chapter 1 discusses collaboration and technology transfer which have become increasingly important pathways to innovation with significant benefits for consumers. Chapter 2 describes the increasing activity and complexity of business models in markets for patents that do not involve technology transfer, and Chapters 3-8 make recommendations for adjustments to the legal rules and practices governing notice and remedies to better align them with competition policy without undermining patent law's support for innovation.