Patent Policies and Technical Progress in the Federal Republic of Germany

Recently, the discussion on the justification of the patent system has been revived. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, growth policy compels us to ask ourselves how an adequate growth can be ensured in the face of an unchanging or even declining total number of man-hours worked. The advancement of technological progress is under discussion. If an increase in research and development activity is taken to be one of the causes of technological progress, the effects which the patent system has on the economy must be examined as well. It is argued that the patent system acts as an incentive since - it is maintained -research and development activities are not initiated unless it is possible to reduce the economic risk by means of an exclusive right for a limited period. Furthermore, some importance is attached to the notion of a contract1), that is to say to the idea that the inventor places his know-how at the disposal of the public and is in return awarded the right of exclusive utilization. It is argued that the advantage of this is that technological knowledge and technological information are disclosed, a process which, in turn, is said to have a beneficial effect on research and development activity.

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