Decentralising the Patent System

Abstract

This paper proposes a substantive rethink of the modern patent system. The patent system has come under intensive criticism in the past, and many scholars have proposed ways to improve it. Ideas for improvement include, e.g., prior-art bounties, contracting out examination and dynamic fee setting. However, many of these ideas have gone unheeded due to the cost of administering them and the rigidity of the patent system. We explore how distributed ledger technologies enable these major changes.

Patent Quality: Towards a Systematic Framework for Analysis and Measurement

“…The results presented here suggest that there is no panacea for improving any specific aspect of patent quality. If we accept this, then very targeted policy changes (including non-patent innovation policies) are likely the most efficient way to address many common criticisms of the patent system (Hemel and Ouellette, 2018), which may, in turn, require system-wide structural changes to practically implement (de Rassenfosse and Higham, 2019).…”