Patenten zijn een net-loss!

[Bart Meerdink]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Wanneer de overhead van de inkomsten afgetrokken wordt, waarbij de
kosten van rechtszaken een deel is van die overhead, dan rest slechts
volgens dit artikel een (groot) negatief saldo. Ik denk niet eens dat
onderstaande studie alle, of zelfs ook maar de meeste, maatschappelijke
kosten meetelt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/business/yourmoney/15proto.html

By MICHAEL FITZGERALD
Published: July 15, 2007

PATENTS are supposed to give inventors an incentive to create things
that spur economic growth. For some companies, especially in the
pharmaceutical business, patents do just that by allowing them to pull
in billions in profits from brand-name, blockbuster drugs. But for most
public companies, patents don’t pay off, say a couple of researchers
who have crunched the numbers.

(...)

The two researchers have analyzed data from 1976 to 1999, the most
recent year with complete data. They found that starting in the late
1990s, publicly traded companies saw patent litigation costs outstrip
patent profits. Specifically, they estimate that about $8.4 billion in
global profits came directly from patents held by publicly traded United
States companies in 1997, rising to about $9.3 billion in 1999, with
two-thirds of the profits going to chemical and pharmaceutical
companies. Domestic litigation costs alone, meanwhile, soared to $16
billion in 1999 from $8 billion in 1997.

Things have probably become worse since then. For instance, patent
litigation is up: there were 2,318 patent-related suits in 1999, and
2,830 in fiscal 2006 (though that's down from the peak year, 2004, when
3,075 were filed). Mr. Bessen said awards in patent cases also seemed to
be up, though he was less confident in that data. Worse, he says,
companies doing the most research and development are sued the most.

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