Changes

thicket_stance={Assumed Pro},

thicket_stance_extract={This reasoning suggests that for the purpose of stimulating R&D, reducing the backloading effect of blocking patents would have been a less harmful policy instrument than increasing patent breadth. Even if the current level of R&D is socially optimal, it would be beneficial for the society to reduce the level of patent breadth and the backloading effect of blocking patents simultaneously to keep R&D constant.},

thicket_def_extract={Today, most basic and applied researchers are effectively standing on top of a huge pyramid... Of course, a pyramid can rise to far greater heights than could any one person... But what happens if, in order to scale the pyramid and place a new block on the top, a researcher must gain the permission of each person who previously placed a block in the pyramid, perhaps paying a royalty or tax to gain such permission? Would this system of intellectual property rights slow down the construction of the pyramid or limit its heights? ... To complete the analogy, blocking patents play the role of the pyramid's building blocks.Carl Shapiro (2001)},

tags={Blocking patents, Profit sharing rules},

thicket_stance={Weakly Pro},

thicket_stance_extract={Moreover, there are factors that may lead to the emergence of a patent blocking problem in genetics in the future: increased awareness among researchers; and growing rate of patent enforcement caused by the strategic enforcement of their rights by patent holders and the proliferating complexity of biomedical research requiring a broader range and greater number of inputs of which a growing number is patented.},

thicket_def_extract={This pattern — the increasing number of patents, increasing patent breadth, and the issuance of patents on more basic discoveries — has created what some call a patent thicket in biotechnology: “an overlapping set of patent rights requiring that those seeking to commercialize new technology obtain licenses from multiple patentees.},

tags={patent pools, clearing houses},