But even Jeff Bezos, Amazon's legendary
founder, expressed doubts regarding the wisdom of the US Patent Office
in granting his company the patent. In an open letter to Amazon's
customers, he called for a rethinking of the whole system of protection
of intellectual property in the Internet age.
In a recently published discourse of innovation and property rights,
titled "The Free-Market Innovation Machine", William Baumol of
Princeton University claims that only capitalism guarantees growth
through a steady flow of innovation. According to popular lore,
capitalism makes sure that innovators are rewarded for their time and
skills since property rights are enshrined in enforceable contracts.
Reality is different, as Baumol himself notes. Innovators tend to
maximize their returns by sharing their technology and licensing it to
more efficient and profitable manufacturers. This rational division of
labor is hampered by the increasingly more stringent and expansive
intellectual property laws that afflict many rich countries nowadays.
These statutes tend to protect the interests of middlemen -
manufacturers, distributors, marketers - rather than the claims of
inventors and innovators.
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