On Jun 1, 2007, at 1:12 PM, YKY (Yan King Yin) wrote:
Also can you tell me what you're referring to by "well-documented social harm"?
Patents are a market regulating mechanism, and therefore reduce the efficiency of the market in theory -- it increases the cost to the consumer for the patented technology. The other side of that equation is that patents nominally increase innovation which returns value to the consumer in other less obvious but important ways that are difficult to quantify.
Whether patent-like regulations are harmful or helpful depends on whether the direct impact in market price are greater or lesser than the indirect impact of innovation rates and characteristics. It is a complex calculus and the direct and indirect impacts vary widely as a function of numerous environmental and demographic factors, which could lead one to conclude that they should actively managed in the same way the Federal Reserve manages the money supply.
Cheers, J. Andrew Rogers ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=e9e40a7e
