The Theorem of the Social Value of Inventions and The Happiness Machine Patent Syndrome

Nuno P. Carvalho, World Intellectual Property Organization

Abstract

The higher the social value of inventions the lower is the proportion of revenue that inventors are able to capture from their exploitation. This formulation is a hypothesis that stems from the observation of facts: most patents covering highly valuable inventions are subject to attacks that are difficult to explain. Those attacks have social causes, such as the monopoly stigma, the urge for penance and the idea of just price. Together they form the happiness machine patent syndrome. There is no evidence making a definitive case for the theorem above, and yet observation of the difficulties that have insistently haunted the exploitation of a number of fundamental patents suggests that it may be more than a mere hypothesis. Society, nevertheless, should not be too worried with the syndrome, because although it harms inventors to a great extent, it does not harm the patent system to the point of making it useless.