Patent monopoly power means research is wasted – only the patent holder reaps the benefits. 95% of infringement isn’t willful – it represents R&D that was wasted because someone else discovered the same thing, but wasn’t first to file

Even when they work properly, patents limit competition by granting a 20-year legal monopoly.7 De jure legal monopolies are able to use the power of the law to extract excess rents from consumers and other firms. In practice, it is not unusual that multiple teams work simultaneously on similar concepts and make similar or iterative discoveries, but only the team that receives the patent enjoys the windfall. The others typically will be barred from bringing their independent invention to market, rendering the research and development invested in such projects sunk costs.

As one notable example: the Wright brothers made a modest improvement to existing flight technology, but their patent allowed them to monopolize the U.S. market and, in essence, to prevent innovation until World War I.8 Other pioneers in the field effectively were shut out from bringing similar, even superior, technologies to market. As Steven Johnson demonstrates with dozens of anecdotes in his book Where Good Ideas Come From, independent invention is the rule, not the exception.9 Outside of the pharmaceutical industry, more than 95 percent of patent lawsuits do not even claim willful infringement – essentially conceding that the accused infringers likely developed the technology independently.10