Article
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Watt, Again? Boldrin and Levine Still Exaggerate the Adverse Effect of Patents on the Progress of Steam Power
-
George Selgin
Published/Copyright:
December 31, 2009
Abstract
In an earlier comment on Boldrin and Levine’s 2003 lecture on patents and their effect on technology, we observed that their account of James Watt’s influence on the progress of steam technology contained factual errors which tended to exaggerate the negative consequences of Watt’s patent. We concluded that it was far from obvious that a corrected account would support Boldrin and Levine’s bold conjectures. While Boldrin and Levine’s 2008 “Against Intellectual Monopoly” begins with a new version of Watt’s story that claims to take our earlier criticisms into account, here we assess that version and conclude that it shares many of the shortcomings of the original.
Published Online: 2009-12-31
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction: The Kauffman Foundation Conference on Intellectual Property and Innovation
- Does Intellectual Monopoly Help Innovation?
- A Cautious Defense of Intellectual Oligopoly With Fringe Competition
- Evaluating the Economic Performance of Property Systems
- Copyright Abolition and Attribution
- A Rhetorical Response to Boldrin & Levine: Against Intellectual (Property) Extremism
- Watt, Again? Boldrin and Levine Still Exaggerate the Adverse Effect of Patents on the Progress of Steam Power
- Responding to the Challenges of "Against Intellectual Monopoly"
- A Recommendation on How to Intelligently Approach Emerging Problems in Intellectual Property Systems
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction: The Kauffman Foundation Conference on Intellectual Property and Innovation
- Does Intellectual Monopoly Help Innovation?
- A Cautious Defense of Intellectual Oligopoly With Fringe Competition
- Evaluating the Economic Performance of Property Systems
- Copyright Abolition and Attribution
- A Rhetorical Response to Boldrin & Levine: Against Intellectual (Property) Extremism
- Watt, Again? Boldrin and Levine Still Exaggerate the Adverse Effect of Patents on the Progress of Steam Power
- Responding to the Challenges of "Against Intellectual Monopoly"
- A Recommendation on How to Intelligently Approach Emerging Problems in Intellectual Property Systems
