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[Nick Skillicorn, ideatovalue.com chief editor and founder, 8-31-16, Inc., “How the Current Patent System Actually Hurts Inventorsm,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

While you can file patents yourself for quite a low cost, it is a very specialised application process that greatly benefits from expertise.

[Ling Zhou, Ecole polytechnique federale Chair of Innovation and IP Policy, 4iP Council, “Patents and Supracompetitive Prices: Evidence from Consumer Products,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

The theoretical literature assumes that monopoly over an invention translates into ability to charge supra-competitive prices in the product market. However, it is not clear that this is the case. For instance, competitors could invent around the original patented invention and offer a product that looks very similar to the end consumer, thereby breaking down market exclusivity. The inability to exploit patented inventions to charge monopolistic prices would undermine the effectiveness of the patent system for incentivizing innovation.

[Ling Zhou, Ecole polytechnique federale Chair of Innovation and IP Policy, 4iP Council, “Patents and Supracompetitive Prices: Evidence from Consumer Products,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

The patent system is a central tool in innovation policy. The prospect of monopolistic pricing conferred by patent protection supposedly encourages firms to innovate. However, there is scant empirical evidence supporting the existence of higher markups for patent-protected products. Using an original dataset that links a broad range of consumer products to the patents that protect them, we study the impact of patent protection on product prices. The empirical strategy exploits exogenous variations in patent status, namely the fall of the patent in the public domain after the statutory 20-year term limit is reached. We find that a loss of patent protection leads to a 7–8 percent drop in product prices. The price drop, which starts about one year before patent expiry, is larger for more important patents and is more pronounced in more competitive product markets.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, allow me to define the term monopoly so we are all on the same page. “Monopoly: exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.”

Therefore, when there is no market there can never be a monopoly because you cannot be in exclusive control of a non-existent market, and you cannot manipulate prices when no one is willing to buy what you are offering. Indeed, the truth is that the vast majority of patents, upwards of 90% of patents (perhaps as high as 98% of patents) will result in rights being granted to cover a product or service that will not be commercialized at all, or if commercialized will lose money because too few people are interested. That doesn’t really sound like a monopoly, does it?

Accordingly, it is rare for any inventor or even company to hold a true monopoly simply because they hold a patent. Where there is no market, no monopoly can exist.

The fact is that most patents are never commercialized. Many that are commercialized end up losing money because not enough interested customers are found. Accordingly, patents rarely grant true monopolies.

[Reto M & Pedro Henrique D, 7-19-23, GRUR International Journal of European and International IP Law, “Potential and Limits of Patent Law to Address Climate Change”, , accessed: 7-9-24, AngH]

The first type of market failure has its origin in the lack of appropriate individual demand in the respective market. An example of this would be medicines for treating rare diseases or diseases that only occur in regions where the financial means to buy such pharmaceuticals are lacking.15 Since the global demand is small under such circumstances, the pharmaceutical industry has no incentive – or at least no monetary incentive – to invest in R&D related to appropriate pharmaceutical solutions in these fields.

[AON, risk and human capital firm, 7-18-23, AON, “How Current IP Patent Litigation Trends are Changing Risk Exposures,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

4. Damage Awards Reflect the Changing Landscape

[AON, risk and human capital firm, 7-18-23, AON, “How Current IP Patent Litigation Trends are Changing Risk Exposures,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

3. Patent Lawsuits are Dominating the Technology Industry

[AON, risk and human capital firm, 7-18-23, AON, “How Current IP Patent Litigation Trends are Changing Risk Exposures,” , accessed: 7-11-24, ES]

2. There’s a Shift Toward NPE Suits

[Julian Crump, International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI) President, March 2021, WIPO Magazine, “IP protection: building value and growth for small businesses,” , accessed: 7-10-24, ES]

These examples illustrate how, over and above the underlying product or service it protects, IP is a valuable asset in its own right. Indeed, it can become a company's most valuable asset. Without doubt, there will be countless other examples among the clients of other IP firms worldwide.

[Julian Crump, International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI) President, March 2021, WIPO Magazine, “IP protection: building value and growth for small businesses,” , accessed: 7-10-24, ES]

While large companies invest in IP for good reasons – to protect their products and services, discourage competition and create new revenue streams for themselves – IP undoubtedly benefits smaller businesses too.

[Santosh Ganesh, 5-11-24, Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade director, LinkedIn, “The High Cost of Frivolous Patent Suits: Stifling Innovation or Protecting Rights?,” , accessed: 7-9-24, ES]

Global Market Expansion: Strong IP protection, achieved through a balanced patent system, allows companies to confidently enter new markets and commercialize their inventions. The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimates that global trade in goods protected by intellectual property rights reached over $5.7 trillion in 2021.

[Julian Crump, International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI) President, March 2021, WIPO Magazine, “IP protection: building value and growth for small businesses,” , accessed: 7-10-24, ES]

Creating valuable IP assets to demonstrate market potential - Ceres Power is a company with patented "deep technology" that has a wide range of clean energy applications and has become a hugely valuable asset. However, had commercialization specialists, IP Group Plc, not stepped in at a critical moment, the company would likely have declared bankruptcy following the failure of initial field trials. IP Group works with early-stage companies that own IP originating from university research to get them to a point where they can demonstrate the real-world viability of their technology to attract co-investment from large corporates and ultimately acquisition. IP Group's Dr. Rob Trezona told me, "IP is a table stake. If our portfolio companies haven't secured their IP rights, they won't be able to raise finance. And typically, investors are looking for a number of patents rather than one or two." Key to IP Group’s successful turnaround of Ceres was the realization that its world-class IP position would allow it to generate more value as a technology provider that jointly develops and licenses technology than as a vertically integrated manufacturing business. The company has partnered successfully with Bosch, Doosan and Weichai Power to develop products for data centers, distributed generation and heavy road vehicles, and is able to generate value for itself through license fees and royalties.

[Emily G. Blevins, 8-3-22, Congressional Research Service Science and Technology Policy Analyst, Congressional Research Service, “Patents and Innovation Policy,” , accessed: 7-9-24, ES]

Though difficult to measure precisely, some have argued that intellectual property (IP) rights have increasingly enabled economic growth by helping to protect these intangible capital assets.6 By some estimates, intangible assets account for as much as 90% of all assets held by companies listed in the S&P 500—a stock market index tracking 500 large, publicly traded, U.S. companies.7 Additionally, a 2021 study released by business consulting firm McKinsey and Company finds a positive correlation across economic sectors between company investments in intangible assets and growth rates.8 According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in 2019 IP-intensive industries accounted for $7.8 trillion of U.S. GDP9 and 44% of total U.S. employment, amounting to some 63 million jobs.

[Gary,07/13/2023, American Public University, “What Is Intellectual Property Law? And Why Does it Matter?”, https://www.apu.apus.edu/area-of-study/security-and-global-studies/resources/what-is-intellectual-property-law/#:~:text=IP%20Laws,variety%20of%20products%20and%20services, accessed 7/11/2024, LR]

Intellectual Property Law and the Public Domain

[Gary, 7/13/23, American Public University, “What Is Intellectual Property Law? And Why Does it Matter?”, https://www.apu.apus.edu/area-of-study/security-and-global-studies/resources/what-is-intellectual-property-law/#:~:text=IP%20Laws,variety%20of%20products%20and%20services, accessed 7/11/24, LR]

The Intersection of Intellectual Property Law and Economic Rights

[Gary, 7/13/23, American Public University, “What Is Intellectual Property Law? And Why Does it Matter?”, https://www.apu.apus.edu/area-of-study/security-and-global-studies/resources/what-is-intellectual-property-law/#:~:text=IP%20Laws,variety%20of%20products%20and%20services, accessed 7/11/24, LR]

Why Does Intellectual Property Matter?

[Gary,07/13/2023, American Public University, “What Is Intellectual Property Law? And Why Does it Matter?”, https://www.apu.apus.edu/area-of-study/security-and-global-studies/resources/what-is-intellectual-property-law/#:~:text=IP%20Laws,variety%20of%20products%20and%20services, accessed 7/11/2024, LR]

IP Laws

[Amelia, 8-21-20, FiveThirtyEight, ‘Economists Are Bad at Predicting Recessions’, , accessed July 14, 2024, CT]

Every president’s election-year nightmare — a recession — is suddenly looming over the 2020 race. In a survey released earlier this week by the National Association of Business Economics, 38 percent of economists predicted that the country will slip into an economic downturn next year, and another recent poll of economists put the chances of a recession in the next 12 months at 1 in 3. Those predictions are getting a lot of attention, and it’s not hard to see why — an economic slowdown in the middle of the presidential election cycle could reshape the race, potentially changing the calculus of Democratic primary voters and undermining President Trump, who has made the strong economy a central selling point of his presidency.

Though the president and first lady weren’t able to dodge the COVID-19 bullet, the U.S. economy, we now know, has adapted remarkably well to the pandemic and social distancing. As a result, the worst of the COVID-19 recession is over.

Fear pushed public and even professional opinion to be bearish about the prospects of economic recovery. On both sides of the aisle, it became commonplace to assume that economic vitality depended largely on financial aid from Washington.