Patent Failure

Honorable Mention for the 2008 PROSE Award in Law and Legal Studies, Association of American Publishers One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009 James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer explode...illusions in their hard-hitting analysis of how patents perform economically. [T]his is an important book, for policymakers, lawyers, scholars and also for universities. --Fiona Reid, Times Higher Education The U.S. patent system is not working. It stands accused on all sides of stifling innovation instead of nurturing it. [E]conomist James Bessen and law academic Michael Meurer show that the system no longer provides predictable property rights. They go on to offer solutions based on empirical evidence from history, law and economics. --Harold Wegner, Financial Times Bessen and Meurer provide the first comprehensive review of the patent system in more than a generation, bringing together a survey of the available empirical data and a clear statement of the usefulness of and limits to the patents as property model. --Choice [R]eaders of Patent Failure may not be sanguine about the likelihood that Congress or other policy-makers even care about, much less rely on, empirical data to inform their decision-making. But this book successfully demonstrates that they should. Ultimately, Patent Failure is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the problems and promise of the US patent system... Patent Failure rewards careful reading and is a book that cannot credibly be ignored by anyone seriously concerned about the fate of the US patent system. --William T. Gallagher, Law and Politics Book Review [W]ell-written and well-documented book... [T]heir finding regarding the profitability of patents for patenting firms is the piece de resistance. --Julio H. Cole, Independent Review In Patent Failure, Bessen and Meurer examine the U.S. patent system's current procedural and operational shortcomings. Considering the book's titular promise to reveal the dangers posed by judges, bureaucrats, and lawyers, readers might expect an angry broadside leveled at the entire legal profession. On the contrary, Patent Failure is measured and methodical, a provocative, evidence-based book for the lawyer and entrepreneur alike. The authors are nothing if not reasonable men. --Strategy + Business [Patent Failure is] one of the most comprehensive empirical analyses of the patent system that has been performed in decades. Rather than piling up anecdotes of beleaguered innovators and rapacious patent trolls, Bessen and Meurer have done the hard work of collecting detailed data about the patent system. And the findings documented in Patent Failure are sobering. --Timothy B. Lee, ARS Technica In keeping with its title, Patent Failure provides a critical assessment of the nation's patent system. The book inevitably leads the reader to ponder the value of patents as property and as gauges of economic growth. --Livinia N. Jones, Centre Daily Times All in all, this book's advantage over other titles in the field is that it goes beyond models and theories providing a bright and well documented picture of the real world of the US patent system. --Andrea Filippetti, Research Policy It's an excellent book and completely worth reading. --Mike Masnick, Techdirt