Customer Reviews

The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law

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Probably the best starting point for understanding the positive and negative economic effects of intellectual property protection. The book is a fairly easy read assuming an academic exposure to economics 101 and a working knowledge of IP law. I read it in two days over thanksgiving vacation as part preparation for a fall patents exam. The book covers the basic economic benefits of IP protection - incentive, information, reduction in search costs, etc. vs. the economic costs - rent seeking, transaction costs, dead weight loss, etc. Good introductory reading for law students, legislative aids, and aspiring lobbyists from the medical-industrial complex.

The book has three very slight weaknesses, inherent in the topic it covers. First, the book admits early on that its own analysis is something of an over-simplification. Unwarranted self-criticism. A better "criticism" is that the real world fits the exception more often than the general rules, and specific situations will most often require a deeper analysis. Lifesaving pharmaceuticals, internet postings, and talking dog collar inventions are distinct situations and really just beg distinct economic analyses.

The second weakness is the assumption that the primary justification for IP law is/should be economic efficiency, superceding moral rights or property rights. Overall, sustains the status quo thinking that the steelworker, the scientist, the engineers, the farmers are just economic units on a global chessboard - not humans, and not part of a communities social fabric. Ignore at your own peril.

Third criticism, not nearly a strong enough position on the horrific transaction and litigation costs associated with the patent system in the U.S. If we should learn anything from the current financial crisis, is that you are remiss not to sound the alarm loud enough when a system has become expensive, unweildy, and unsustainable. To be fair, significant treatment of these costs is somewhat outside the books thesis of providing simple economic analysis of IP protection; and, transaction costs are covered in th text. Nontheless, it seems to ignore the elephant in the room to not give a more in depth treatment of this subject.