General/Definitions Flashcards
What is a patent?
A patent is a state granted exclusive right in a product or process.
It grants the proprietor of the patent the right to stop other people doing things interrelation to that product or process.
What are the justifications for patents?
Economic inventive and natural rights. The system creates a tradeoff between innovation toady against innovation tomorrow.
Not a reward for the search but compensation for its successful conclusion.
Brenner v Mason, 383, US 519, 536 (1996)
What are the economic justifications for patents?
Patents provide a monopoly and market exclusivity for a product or process for a period of time. The monopoly rents provide reimbursement for the inventors R&D costs.
Patents are also granted to encourage invention.
Patents also give inventors market lead time.
What are some of the Economic sub-theories surrounding the need for patents?
Patent inducement: are people induced to make a patent and do patent speed up commercialisation.
Prospecting theory: also known as the gold rush theory, people are encouraged to “strike a claim” because the reward is often greater than what is provided and sometimes there is nothing.
Rent dissipation/cumulative innovation: an invention is often only patentable where it avoids rent dissipation - meaning that the societal benefit of an invention is dissipated where others undertake redundant research, a patent is only granted where it provides signals of how the invention may be improved: therefore, an elegant invention, or one that cannot be improved will not be afforded patent protection.
Anti-commons: if too many patents are granted, the transaction costs will increase to obtain access to the invention and so it will be under-utilised.
What are the main pieces of legislation for UK patent law?
The Patents Act 1977 Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Patents Act 2004 Regulatory Reform (patents) Order 2004 Intellectual Property Act 2014 Intellectual Property (Unjustified threats) Act 2017 The Patents Act 2007
