When a new technology consists of sequences of innovations that culminate in a finalconsumer product, the balance between successive innovators is one of the main concernsin the design of the patent system. While intertemporal aspects of incentive are critical inthis environment of sequential...

Commissioned by the CGIAR Science Council and prepared as a Background Paper for the 2008 World Development Report of the World Bank.

Proponents tout the positive incentive-to-innovate effects of intellectual property rights (IPRs), while others maintain that the expanding subject matter and geographical extent of IPRs are stifling crop research, especially research and development (R&D) dealing with developing-country crop...