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An Empirical Look at Software Patents

Revision as of 12:14, 28 September 2009 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (save)

An Empirical Look at Software Patents is a paper jointly published in March 2004 by:

  • James E. Bessen, Research on Innovation; Boston University - School of Law
  • Robert M. Hunt, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Interesting parts

From the Abstract:

"[...]The very large increase in software patent propensity over time is not adequately explained by changes in R&D investments, employment of computer programmers, or productivity growth. [...] We find evidence that software patents substitute for R&D at the firm level; they are associated with lower R&D intensity[...]

Page 37 claims that the USPTO grants 70 software patents per day.

From the conclusion:

"For industries like software or computer, there is actually good reason to believe that imitation becomes a spur to innovation, while strong patents become an impediment"

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External links