Prizing System didn’t work in the past, they won’t work now.

Using prizes to encourage inventors to solve problems is not a new idea. The Longitude Prize, sponsored by the British government, was famously awarded in 1737 to John Harrison for his novel, clock-based solution for determining a ship’s longitude. Prizes were also offered in Napoleonic France for a functional water turbine, and for a method of preserving food for the army: the precursor of the now ubiquitous tin can.Innovation prizes fell out of academic and political fashion for most of the 20th century (with the exception of the technologically backward Soviet Union), as patents and other forms of IP rights prevailed as the main driver of technological innovation. This move away from innovation prizes toward today’s market-based system of innovation reward was hardly surprising given the deep structural problems with prizes, as documented by economic historian Dr. Zorina Khan in her 2015 analysis of dozens of 19th-century innovation prizes administered in Britain, France, and the United States.2 As Khan concluded, “History indicates that the evolution of the institution of innovation prizes over the past three centuries serves as a cautionary tale rather than a success story.