Do Patents Truly Promote Innovation?

"Sir William Thompson, a British inventor and scientist attending the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, looked at the amazing array of American inventions - including Bell's telephone, the Westinghouse airbrake, Singer's sewing machines, and Edison's improved telegraph - and told Scientific American that 'if Europe does not amend its patent laws, America will speedily become the nursery of useful inventions for the world.'"

"Japan's Assistant Secretary of State Korehiyo Takahashi, who visited the U.S. Patent Office, said upon his return home: 'What is it that makes the United States such a great nation? We investigated, and we found it was patents. And we will have patents.'"

"Sir Henry Sumner Maine conceded that the U.S. patent system was 'one of the provisions of the Constitution that have most influenced the destinies of the American people' and that it had made the United States 'the first in the world for the number and ingenuity of [its] inventors.'"

During the 19th century, prominent international figures recognized the U.S. patent system as crucial to American economic success. British inventor Sir William Thompson warned that without patent law reforms, Europe would lose its competitive advantage as America became the world's innovation center. Swiss manufacturer Edward Bally similarly cautioned European nations about American industrial advancement. Japanese officials, after investigating U.S. success, identified patents as the key factor and implemented their own system. Even skeptical British jurist Sir Henry Sumner Maine reversed his position, acknowledging the patent system's profound influence on American prosperity and technological achievement. Economic historians Lamoreaux and Sokoloff confirmed the patent system's powerful impact on inventive activity patterns through broad property rights access.

Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law