Whither the Patent System?

Does the patent system as it is currently constituted serve to advance useful progress as the U.S. Constitution insists it should? Or is it the case, as some lobbyists and others claim, that there is little evidence available to tell? In fact there is a large and increasing body of evidence documenting that the concretely quantifiable costs of the current system greatly exceed the largely hypothetical benefits. We report here the consensus among academic researchers of the patent system that the system as currently constituted is failing, serves to discourage rather than encourage innovation, and is in desperate need of reform.

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