Competitiveness and Intellectual Property

“If I see further,” said Isaac Newton, “it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” Recent rulings on patent law and intellectual property rights have made it considerably harder to climb up on those shoulders—at least without paying for the privilege. Such rulings, which make it possible to patent not only software procedures but even mathematical formulas, deal a serious blow to the ability of the United States to compete in the global economy.