James Bessen is a noted scholar on the economics of innovation and patents who has been a successful innovator and CEO of a software company. In 1983, Bessen developed the first commercially successful “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” PC publishing program. He founded and led a company that delivered PC-based publishing systems to high-end commercial publishers. Since selling the company, Mr. Bessen has done economics research on technological innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management and currently at the Boston University School of Law. His work on software patents has been influential on European policymaking.
Is the U.S. patent system broken? Recently, business leaders, policymakers, and inventors have complained to the media and to Congress that today’s patent system stifles innovation instead of fostering it. James Bessen will discuss a broad range of evidence on the economic performance of the patent system. He finds that patents provide strong incentives for firms in a few industries, but for most firms today, patents actually discourage innovation because they fail to perform as well-defined property rights. This analysis provides a guide to policy reform.
Location
- Stanford Law School - 280B
- 559 Nathan Abbott Way
- Stanford, CA, 94305
- United States