keannu
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- Dec 27, 2010
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Source : Korean 11 graders' mock test - 2019.Sep - No 23
The original idea of a patent, remember, was not to reward inventors with monopoly profits, but to encourage them to share their inventions. A certain amount of intellectual property law is plainly necessary to achieve this. But it has gone too far. Most patents are now as much about defending monopoly and discouraging rivals as about sharing ideas. And that disrupts innovation. Many firms use patents as barriers to entry, suing upstart innovators who trespass on their intellectual property even on the way to some other goal. In the years before World War I, aircraft makers tied each other up in patent lawsuits and slowed down innovation until the US government stepped in. Much the same has happened with smartphones and biotechnology today. New entrants have to fight their way through “patent thickets” if they are to build on existing technologies to make new ones.
It's kind of ambivalent or dubious whether "even on the way to some other goal" describes "Many firms use patents" or "upstart innovators who trespass". Could you clarify it?
The original idea of a patent, remember, was not to reward inventors with monopoly profits, but to encourage them to share their inventions. A certain amount of intellectual property law is plainly necessary to achieve this. But it has gone too far. Most patents are now as much about defending monopoly and discouraging rivals as about sharing ideas. And that disrupts innovation. Many firms use patents as barriers to entry, suing upstart innovators who trespass on their intellectual property even on the way to some other goal. In the years before World War I, aircraft makers tied each other up in patent lawsuits and slowed down innovation until the US government stepped in. Much the same has happened with smartphones and biotechnology today. New entrants have to fight their way through “patent thickets” if they are to build on existing technologies to make new ones.
It's kind of ambivalent or dubious whether "even on the way to some other goal" describes "Many firms use patents" or "upstart innovators who trespass". Could you clarify it?
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