In this article, the author reviews intellectual property rights (IPRs), with some emphasis on the protection of agricultural and life sciences innovations. The main institutional features of IPRs are first discussed, along with a brief historical background and an articulation of the main rationale for the existence of such rights. This is followed by an overview of the principal economic issues related to IPRs. The author explains the main benefit/cost trade-offs of allowing patents and other IPRs, and then analyzes specific issues in some depth, including the scope of patent protection, the effects of patent races, and the problems arising when IPRs concern cumulative and/or complementary innovations. The author further illustrates the economics of IPRs by considering instruments alternative to patents, such as prizes and government procurement contracts. Finally, the author briefly discusses some open policy issues in this area.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Iowa State University, Department of Economics in its series Staff General Research Papers with number
1982.
Length: Date of creation: 22 May 2001 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:isu:genres:1982
Contact details of provider: Postal: Iowa State University, Dept. of Economics, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070 Phone: +1 515.294.6741 Fax: +1 515.294.0221 Email: Web page: http://www.econ.iastate.edu More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Stephanie Bridges).
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)