Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovation at Risk
By James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer
Princeton University Press, £17.95 ($29.95)

The US patent system is not working. It stands accused on all sides of stifling innovation instead of nurturing it. Some critics say the system is fundamentally wrecked, others that it can be fixed. In this new book, economist James Bessen and law academic Michael Meurer show that the system no longer provides predictable property rights. They go on to offer solutions based on empirical evidence from history, law and economics.