The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants many weak patents that would be ruled invalid if subjected to more thorough scrutiny. Some observers see weak patents as evidence of the need for allocation of more resources to increase the accuracy of patent examinations. Others...

Investments in R&D and agricultural innovations have been fundamental to long-term economic growth worldwide. But global resource allocation has been uneven, with some developing countries closing in on developed-world scientific capacities, others regaining ground lost over the past decade or...