Selling Ideas

Abstract

An extensive global market in patent rights and patented inventions helped creative men and women to increase their returns from inventive activity. Prominent multinational corporations further depended on portfolios of patents to acquire and maintain their domestic and worldwide competitive advantage. Markets in ideas aided the transfer of technology across the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Spain, and Japan. Patterns in the sale of patents and foreign patenting were responsive to national differences in incentives, legal rules, and institutions. The results shed light on central debates in economic development, including the net benefits of tailoring patent institutions to individual circumstances, relative to adherence to harmonized international standards.