The Political Economy of Patent Policy Reform in the United States

During the 1980s and 1990s, important legislative, judicial, and diplomatic initiatives emanated from the United States, strengthening patent and copyright enforcement systems both domestically and in the broader world economy. The political influences that led to these changes are interesting in their own right. Even more interesting, however, is the fact that governmental emphasis on patent systems increased in the wake of impressive new findings from economic studies showing that patents played a surprisingly minor role in well-established corporations' decisions to invest in research, development, and technological innovation. The opposing movements of the political and behavioral science currents will be a principal theme of this article.