The book The Invisible Edge, in chapter 8, makes a compelling case that the recession of the 1970s was largely due to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust policies that limited the value of patents owned by U.S. companies.  The book describes in detail the shameful abuse of government power by the FTC to force Xerox to license all its technology to all comers for a pittance.  Xerox spent millions of dollars and over a decade to perfect the plain paper copier.  They held numerous patents on the technology that made the plain paper copier possible.  In 1975 when Xerox agreed to the FTC consent decree to license their patents, they had almost a 100% market share in plain paper copiers.  Just four years later, their market share was down to 14% and most of the rest of the market was controlled by Japanese companies.