Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition

摘要

Innovation benefits consumers through the development of new products, processes and services that improve lives and address unmet needs. It is key to meeting societys greatest challenges in areas as diverse as energy production, communications and health care, and it is essential to sustained economic growth and global competitiveness. But innovation is a complex process. It involves a series of steps from idea to invention through development to commercialization, each of which can be expensive, risky and unpredictable. The goal of the patent system is to promote innovation in the face of that expense and risk. It does so by giving patent owners the right to exclude others from making, using or selling a patented invention for 20 years. By preventing copying that might otherwise drive down prices, the patent system allows innovators to recoup their investment in research and development (R&D). The patent system plays a critical role in promoting innovation across industries from biotechnology to nanotechnology, and by entities from large corporations to independent inventors.