ABSTRACT
The patent is the instrument of the intellectual property system best known and most closely associated with innovation. The patent is the outcome of a bargain between the inventor and society by which society grants the inventor certain rights to his invention in return for the inventor’s disclosure of whatever it is he has invented (see Taylor and Silberston, 1973). Without these rights, it is argued, the inventor would be unable to reveal his invention for fear that others would steal it. Consequently, the inventor would have little incentive to invent and society would forgo the invention and its benefits. Thus the patent system neatly allows the inventor to exploit his invention, and provides society with an invention it would not otherwise have had.
