by DJ Nordquist
Excerpt:
The U.S. has always been a nation of inventors. New ideas and the jobs they create are fundamental to the strength and dynamism of our economy. The first patent was signed by President George Washington in 1790 for potash, an ingredient used to improve the productivity of fertilizer. Eleven million patents later, our country’s entrepreneurial engine has been greased with patent protections to ensure those willing to take chances are rewarded with safeguards for their intellectual property.
However, innovation and economic dynamism have been declining across numerous measures since the 1980s, a trend that has been accelerating since around the year 2000. A new paper by University of Chicago and Federal Reserve economists finds that patent litigation may be a partial culprit, negatively impacting U.S. innovation and knowledge diffusion.
Read the full op-ed in Barron’s. Read Trends in U.S. Business Dynamism and the Innovation Landscape here.
