State of Innovation

Patents and Innovation Economics

Did Edison Invent the Light Bulb?

            It is important to understand what is meant by innovating or inventing and what its properties are before embarking on how to encourage or measure technological innovation.  Innovating is creating something new.  What do we mean by new?  Was the light bulb invented by Edison new?  There were other electric light bulbs before Edison.  Some people suggest that Edison did not really invent the light bulb.  One website states “Contrary to what schools have taught for years, the American icon, Thomas Edison, neither invented the light bulb, nor held the first patent to the modern design of the light bulb.”[1]  Most of Edison’s detractors point to Joseph Wilson Swan as the inventor of the incandescent light bulb.  Swan was an English physicist and chemist and applied for a patent on his light bulb before Edison.  However, Swan’s light bulbs were low resistance light bulbs.  If you tried to setup an electrical power system to power Swan’s light bulbs, it would have required such a large copper conductor as to make the system economically unfeasible.  Edison created the first high resistance light bulb, which made it possible to create a commercially feasible electric light system.  Read more »

July 20, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | -History, -Philosophy, Innovation, Patents | , , , , , | 3 Comments

Expanded Adminstrative Challenges to Patent – Good or Bad?

A study commissioned by the Manufacturing Alliance on Patent Policy suggests that expanding the admistrative challenges to patents will:

1. Increase Patent Pendency

2. Significantly increase the cost of defending the validity of patents

and will not increase the quality of patents.  See the full report.

July 20, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | -Law, Patents | , , , | Leave a Comment

Natural Laws of Innovation – 2

Conservation Law of Innovation:

All innovations are combinations of existing/known elements.

Conservation of matter (and energy) means that you cannot create something from nothing.  As a result, all innovations must be a combination of existing or known elements.

Causality Law of Innovation:

Invention precedes production, production precedes consumption and discovery precedes invention.

Read more »

July 16, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | -Economics, Innovation | , , , , , | 9 Comments

Natural Laws of Innovation – 1

What do we mean by innovation?  We mean the creation of something new.  Because of conservation of matter (and energy), new does not mean creating something out of nothing.  As used here innovation means a new combination of elements and connections that has positive value to a human being.  Combinations of elements and connections that are new but have no value to any human being are generally noise.  However, in the case of failed attempts to solve a problem the new combination may have value in what does not work.  For instance, Edison considered his attempts to create a light bulb as having negative value.  He told a reporter, “I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work.”  Read more »

July 15, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | -Economics, Innovation | , , , , | 1 Comment

Pat Choate, Celebrated Economist, Author and Intellectual Property Expert, Joins AIPR Board of Directors

New York, NY, July 9, 2009 – Dr. Pat Choate, a prominent economist, best-selling author, former vice presidential candidate and noted intellectual property expert, has joined the Board of Directors of American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR). Dr. Choate, currently director of the Manufacturing Policy Project, a Washington, DC-based policy institute, has thrown his support behind an organization that represents American innovators – inventors, scientists, engineers, researchers and intellectual property service providers – in the ongoing struggle to enact meaningful patent reform. Read more »

July 13, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Three Steps to Reduce Patent Pendency Times

President Obama has prioritized reducing patent application pendency times.  What are your top three suggestions to achieve this goal?  Here are my mine.

One: Change the way examiners are evaluated.  According to my understanding, productivity count or points are a major part of an examiner’s performance review.  The examiner gains points for reviewing a new case, when an applicant files a RCE (Request for Continued Examination) and if the case is allowed or abandoned, among other activities.  This system encourages “churning” where an examiner will force the applicant to file a RCE in order to obtain an allowance to increase their points. Read more »

July 10, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | -Philosophy, -Prosecution, Patents | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Is Innovation the Key to Growing the U.S. Economy?

Traditional Explanation of Economic Growth

What causes economic growth?  One of the common explanations is consumer spending.  As a headline on Minnesota Public Radio’s website in October 30, 2008 stated “Consumer Spending Accounts for Two-Thirds of U.S. Economy.”  If consumer spending is such a big part of the economy, then all that is necessary to stimulate economic growth is to get consumers spending more.  The other one-third of the U.S. economy is government spending, so perhaps by having the government spend more money we can stimulate the economy.  The theory of spending causing economic growth is commonly associated with Keynesian economics.  Read more »

July 8, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | -Economics, Innovation | , , , , , | 10 Comments

Business Week Podcast – Was There a Lack of Innovation in the Last Decade?

This podcast explains that the U.S. economy revolved around the housing market and easy credit in the last decade and that the U.S. failed to innovate.  Innovation is the key to economic growth and the only mechanism for increasing per capita income.  The podcast discusses the new field of “innovation economics.”  Traditional economics gives lip service innovation, but has not studied its causes and effects.

July 7, 2009 Posted by dbhalling | Uncategorized | , , , | Leave a Comment

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