[Patents] economic studies

[Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr]

Hartmut,

  I challenged Greg, not you.  Though Greg has some problems handling
irony, he is enough of a big boy to manage that on his own.  He has
strong opinons : let him back them with credible science or analysis.

  But since you mentioned these 2 reports

  - regarding the Fraunhofer Society's report, I do not have that.  Is
it in English ?  Reference ? ... well, you say yourself that it does
not analyse the specific case of software patents, while economists
agree (and this is stated explicitly in the IPI report) that if the
same factors can be considered in any technical field [1], their
weights vary with each field, thus not necessarily leading to
identical conclusion.  So a general statement regarding patents
independently of the field is just a groudless article of faith.

  - regarding the IPI report, though entitled "The Economic Impact of
Patentability of Computer Programs", most of it is economically
irrelevant legal garbage.  The only part dealing with economic issues,
including the promotion of innovation, is part 3, which concludes
unambiguously:

>          The theoretical and other economic literature does not
>          demonstrate, indeed casts doubt, on whether economic
>          efficiency, i.e. increased overall welfare, is achieved by
>          having or making computer program related inventions
>          patentable.

   And that conclusion was reached, even though the investigators had
been requested to produce a study to justify patenting of software.
The legal junk was added to obfuscate that conclusion.

  Greg, your turn.

Bernard


[1] Actually, the creation of wealth in ways similar to what is done
for free software is a phenomenon specific to intangible goods.  And
it is part of the economic equation.


On Sat, Jan 06, 2001 at 07:53:59PM +0100, PILCH Hartmut wrote:
> >   Now, I CHALLENGE YOU to exhibit economic studies that concludes to
> > the economic and technological usefulness of software patents in the
> > long term.
> 
> What about the IPI study or the recent study from the Fraunhofer Society's
> ISI institute?
> 
> Of course these studies do not really investigate the matter but just
> reiterate some well known abstract theories about the merits of
> intellectual property.  The Fraunhofer study doesn't really argue the case
> for software patentability.  It just states the belief of Fraunhofer and
> of the people in the "patent initiative" of the German Minstry of Science
> and Education in the beneficial effect of patents in general.  Patents are
> only a side issue in this study, which recommends certain "strategic"
> priorities to the Ministry, the most important one being that of
> promotinig Fraunhofer.
> 
> So, if someone wants to quote nice looking studies, he can of course. The
> question is rather, whether there is serious argumentation for software
> patents.  Greg may then say that I am biased and just won't accept
> anything as "serious" that arguments pro swpat.  But the problem is that
> IPI and the Fraunhofer study don't even try to argue the case.  They don't
> even set out the questions that others, like Bessen & Maskin, answer
> systematically in great detail.
> 
> So the challenge must be:  name us a study that does set out these
> questions, answers them systematically (at a level similar to B&M) and
> concludes that swpats are beneficial to progress.
> 
> -phm
> 
> 
> 
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