Patents

Conclusion

As noted by Galvez-Behar [GAL 10b], the history of patents is that of a permanent embarrassment. At the start, patents were designed not against access to knowledge, but on the contrary, to serve it. Arrow [ARR 62] described the patent as an “institutional arrangement” that could provide a solution to a market failure. In his view, it would resolve the contradictory equation of fostering innovation while protecting inventors’ rights. This protection ultimately makes it possible for the disclosure and diffusion of inventions to have a positive impact on society. Gould and Gruben [GOU 96], for example, use transnational data on patent protection to show that intellectual property protection is an important factor in economic growth. Brandstetter and Saggi [BRA 11] also contribute to this observation, showing that increased intellectual property protection in developing countries leads to more incoming foreign direct investments, a greater part of local production in the global basket of goods and higher real salaries for the workforce. The mechanisms through which industrial property rights stimulate growth have also been the subject of research. Studies have shown that the granting of patents is a significant factor in the commercialization of inventions through license issuing (Gans et al. [GAN 08]).

However, in the second half of the 19th Century, the controversy over patents in Europe was evidenced by calls to reform the IPR system. These calls ranged from requests ...