We may have a legit disagreement about the role of patents in supporting the funding of at least certain types of R&D. The Bayh-Dole Act appears to have created a comparative advantage for universities and government labs in funding R&D. Is that the best model? There are reasonable arguments that it is not. But so long as universities and government labs have tech transfer offices, I’m dubious about curiosity driven R&D getting funded by for-profit corporations. Anyway the US market doesn’t appear to support it the way it did before the 1980s. But if you believe startups are doing curiosity driven research, then we’re talking about different things. For me, curiosity driven research is literally curiosity driven with no obvious expectation of commercial use. I don’t believe patents are either necessary or sufficient to funding this kind of research, which is sometimes called basic science.
I was exaggerating the weight of the evidence of multiple inventions a little in arguing against the need for patents to support scientific discoveries, but not much. I note that even in responding to this point, you reach for the desire to “help[] companies attract financing or just providing more capital” as beneficial. But that’s where we agree patents and licensing are socially beneficial. The question is whether they’re necessary or beneficial to get to the point where attracting capital makes sense. I’m arguing no because the history of science and engineering demonstrates that fundamental breakthroughs are not predictable enough to be funded commercially. AT&T and IBM were able to do it because they were monopolies at a scale that hasn’t been replicated since then.
So we agree that inventors invent because that’s who they are. We both want to ensure we have inventors, and that they get compensated well enough to ensure we get the benefit of their work.
But who are these inventors? Are they scientists who we also want to teach and publish their discoveries? Are they engineers building the next great platform for human society to grow? If the former, why wouldn’t government grants be sufficient? If the latter, why not venture capital? That seems like the right way to frame the potential disagreement here.
In the end, there just aren’t many actual people who fit anywhere between these two archetypes. I actually have met a few of them, but they are exceptionally rare. And I don’t know that we need to modify the institutions we have today to encourage more to follow in their footsteps. Maybe. But from where I sit today, I feel safer saying patents are best for society when used only as a mechanism for attracting capital to a venture capital startup or other for-profit corporation.
We may have a legit disagreement about the role of patents in supporting the funding of at least certain types of R&D. The Bayh-Dole Act appears to have created a comparative advantage for universities and government labs in funding R&D. Is that the best model? There are reasonable arguments that it is not. But so long as universities and government labs have tech transfer offices, I’m dubious about curiosity driven R&D getting funded by for-profit corporations. Anyway the US market doesn’t appear to support it the way it did before the 1980s. But if you believe startups are doing curiosity driven research, then we’re talking about different things. For me, curiosity driven research is literally curiosity driven with no obvious expectation of commercial use. I don’t believe patents are either necessary or sufficient to funding this kind of research, which is sometimes called basic science.
I was exaggerating the weight of the evidence of multiple inventions a little in arguing against the need for patents to support scientific discoveries, but not much. I note that even in responding to this point, you reach for the desire to “help[] companies attract financing or just providing more capital” as beneficial. But that’s where we agree patents and licensing are socially beneficial. The question is whether they’re necessary or beneficial to get to the point where attracting capital makes sense. I’m arguing no because the history of science and engineering demonstrates that fundamental breakthroughs are not predictable enough to be funded commercially. AT&T and IBM were able to do it because they were monopolies at a scale that hasn’t been replicated since then.
So we agree that inventors invent because that’s who they are. We both want to ensure we have inventors, and that they get compensated well enough to ensure we get the benefit of their work.
But who are these inventors? Are they scientists who we also want to teach and publish their discoveries? Are they engineers building the next great platform for human society to grow? If the former, why wouldn’t government grants be sufficient? If the latter, why not venture capital? That seems like the right way to frame the potential disagreement here.
In the end, there just aren’t many actual people who fit anywhere between these two archetypes. I actually have met a few of them, but they are exceptionally rare. And I don’t know that we need to modify the institutions we have today to encourage more to follow in their footsteps. Maybe. But from where I sit today, I feel safer saying patents are best for society when used only as a mechanism for attracting capital to a venture capital startup or other for-profit corporation.