Albert and Vern Oldham Intellectual Property Law Lecture Series presents:

Professor Michael Meurer, Boston University School of Law

“Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers
Put Innovation at Risk”
Thursday, April 15 at 5 p.m. in Room 152

Recent empirical analysis provides conclusive evidence that the patent system today fails, in general, as a system of property rights. Properly functioning property rights give property owners an incentive to efficiently invest in their property. As recently as the 1980s, the patent system provided positive incentives for patent owners to invest in their inventions. And even today it provides positive incentives in some industries, such as the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and to some groups of inventors, such as independent inventors. However, for most firms—in particular, those firms who account for the largest share of R&D spending—today’s patent system actually decreases incentives to invest in R&D and commercialization. Professor Meurer will discuss empirical evidence that points to the reasons for this failure.

Reception to immediately follow lecture.