Abstract
Response to William Hubbard, The Debilitating Effect of Exclusive Rights: Patents and Productive Inefficiency
Professor William Hubbard’s article, The Debilitating Effect of Exclusive Rights: Patents and Productive Inefficiency, starts by asking, “Are we underestimating the costs of patent protection?” One reaction to that initial question might be excitement that some researcher has calculated the costs and benefits of patent protection, and that Hubbard seeks to render that calculation more accurate. Indeed, Hubbard’s article identifies factors that should be —but heretofore have not been—considered in an economic analysis of patent law: the positive influence of competition on productive efficiency and the opposite effect of some patent policies, laws, and practices. But Hubbard also notes that, unfortunately, despite the abundance of economic literature regarding patents, there exists a great deal of incertitude with regards to even their conventional economic effects.
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