Esta historia sobre la patente de James Watt, que es la introducción de Against Intellectual Monopoly (de Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine), es un ejemplo sumamente ilustrativo de la ineficiencia de las patentes. Los incentivos a la creación que generan estos monopolios legales palidecen frente a las restricciones que imponen al desarrollo del invento patentado y a la creación de otros productos relacionados susceptibles de infringir la patente.
Copio un fragmento del capítulo, pero vale la pena leerlo entero.
During the period of Watt's patents the United Kingdom added about 750 horsepower of steam engines per year. In the thirty years following Watt's patents, additional horsepower was added at a rate of more than 4,000 per year. Moreover, the fuel efficiency of steam engines changed little during the period of Watt's patent; while between 1810 and 1835 it is estimated to have increased by a factor of five.[4]
After the expiration of Watt's patents, not only was there an explosion in the production and efficiency of engines, but steam power came into its own as the driving force of the Industrial Revolution. Over a thirty year period steam engines were modified and improved as crucial innovations such as the steam train, the steamboat and the steam jenny came into wide usage. The key innovation was the high-pressure steam engine — development of which had been blocked by Watt's strategic use of his patent. Many new improvements to the steam engine, such as those of William Bull, Richard Trevithick, and Arthur Woolf, became available by 1804: although developed earlier these innovations were kept idle until the Boulton and Watt patent expired. (...)
In most histories, James Watt is a heroic inventor, responsible for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The facts suggest an alternative interpretation. Watt is one of many clever inventors working to improve steam power in the second half of the eighteenth century. After getting one step ahead of the pack, he remained ahead not by superior innovation, but by superior exploitation of the legal system. The fact that his business partner was a wealthy man with strong connections in Parliament, was not a minor help.
En estos dos artículos argumento en contra de las patentes y los derechos de autor desde un punto de vista ético y económico:
