Pharma depends on patents

[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]

Many of the world's most forward-thinking companies still heavily support the patent system. For example, IBM spends more than $6 billion a year on R&D, and has an in-house staff of more than 370 patent lawyers. And many large companies have recently spent billions buying up patent portfolios to protect them from lawsuits by other corporations, like how Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion, predominantly for the approximately $4 billion worth of patents it possessed around smartphone technology.

And some industries are based almost entirely around the use of patents, such as the pharmaceutical industry, where a single patent for a new drug can lead to a lab being bought for millions by a larger drug company.