IP Topics
By
Stuart J. Sinder,
Michelle Carniaux and
Shawn W. O'Dowd
- April 2006
Patent systems around the world attempt to reach the proper balance between the protection of intellectual property rights and theadverse economic impact such rights are sometimes perceived to have upon competition. On the one hand, the granting of intellectualproperty rights is supposed to stimulate innovation by assuring that invention and research are financially rewarded, and by providingan incentive for inventors to disclose their inventions to the public in exchange for the limited monopoly of a patent. On the otherhand, if patent rights are too liberally conferred or inappropriately asserted, they can make it too costly for companies to successfullynavigate their way through the minefield of patent rights in order to market new products.