Routledge Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition
An official document conferring exclusive privileges on an invention for a period of years. Patents create a formidable technological barrier to entry, establishing and maintaining MONOPOLY POWER.
Since patents allow monopoly profits to accrue to their inventors, they are a major private incentive to research and development. Non-patent-holders can only use patented technical knowledge by licence. Although the patent system may encourage inventors, it has been criticized on the grounds that all scientific knowledge should be a free good and that the considerable legal costs of registering and protecting a patent exclude the poor inventor from using the system.
See also: invention; product cycle
This is the complete article, containing 104 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
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