The goal of the patent system shouldn’t be to promote innovation at all costs, but to maximize efficiency by considering costs and benefits.

It is also helpful to briefly address the objection that the patent system aims to promote technological progress, so it should not internalize negative innovation externalities. After all, doing so would chill inventive activity. This Article addresses this objection more fully below,137 but for now it is sufficient to say that this argument misunderstands the objectives of the patent system. While the patent system seeks to promote technological progress, it does not aim to do so at all costs. Rather, it aims to maximize efficiency in the allocation of resources for innovation. Maximizing efficiency, moreover, must entail considering costs as well as benefits, including positive and negative externalities.