Intellectual Property, Technological Regimes and Market Dynamics

This paper advances an argument in support of technologyspecific tailoring of incentives to innovate. With a focus on patent incentives, the argument proceeds from the identification of the factors likely to have a bearing on (a) the differential role and effectiveness of patents in different technological regimes; (b) the varying degree of relevance of the various functions of the patent system in different technological regimes, and (c) the nature of the limits the IPRs system encounters in performing its functions in different technological regimes. These differences are then exemplified with reference to software and the life sciences and the means through which flexibility in the provision of incentives might be achieved in the two domains are explored