Even with imperfect information, directed innovation is still more prosocial than patents
Buccafusco, Christopher and Weinstein, Samuel N., 2024 - Christopher Buccafusco is the Edward & Ellen Schwarzman Distinguished Professor at Duke University School of Law. Samuel N. Weinstein is a Professor and Co-Director of the Heyman Center on Corporate Governance at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University "Antisocial Innovation," Georgia Law Review: Vol. 58: No. 2, Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol58/iss2/4 //DH
Policymakers may have imperfect knowledge about which innovations are likely to contribute the most to social welfare, but,
we hope, they are less likely than the utility-blind patent system to favor innovations that are affirmatively harmful to society. We do not intend to seem overly sanguine about the state’s ability to direct innovation. Certainly, research grants have supported the development of drugs and chemicals that turned out to cause grave social harms.399 Our claim is more modest. Once we recognize the existence and scale of antisocial innovation, our confidence in the patent system should decrease.