美国专利制度无益于创新_时事_双语阅读-查字典英语网

美国专利制度无益于创新

If you surveyed convention delegates, you would find a majority in the Godzilla camp. Americans reasonably worship property rights and unreasonably extend this attitude to intellectual property rights, conflating “rival goods like homes and hamburgers, which cannot be shared costlessly, with “non-rival intellectual products that can be enjoyed simultaneously by all. Likewise, Americans worship innovation and presume that intellectual property rights always promote it. But this presumption is wrong.

如果你调查一下党代会代表，就会发现站在Godzilla一边的人不在少数。美国人崇拜财产权固然在情在理，但将这种态度延伸到知识产权，把住房、汉堡包这样无法无偿共享的“竞争性产品，与众人可以一起享用的“非竞争性知识产品混为一谈，那就毫无道理了。同样，美国人崇拜创新，并认定知识产权总能够推动创新。但这种想法是错误的。

The poster child for patents is the pharmaceuticals industry. But, as Richard Posner, a federal appeals court judge, has argued, what works in this sector is not necessarily appropriate in communications, software or elsewhere. Bringing a new drug to market is inordinately expensive, mainly because of the need for large clinical trials. Monopoly rights over new drugs provide a needed spur to invention. And because trials take as long as a decade, the 20-year exclusivity typically granted can mean only 10 years of monopoly profits.