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Article: Imitation v inspiration; Intellectual property.(difficulty of protecting intellectual property rights in poor countries)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 14, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How poor countries can avoid the wrongs of intellectual-property rights
"THE public will learn that patents are artificial stimuli to improvident exertions; that they cheat people by promising what they cannot perform; that they rarely give security to really good inventions, and elevate into importance a number of trifles...no possible good can ever come of a Patent Law, however admirably it may be framed."
Hardly an argument you might expect The Economist to endorse. And yet this passage appeared in our pages in 1851. In the mid-19th century, The Economist believed that patents hindered rather than helped growth, by restricting the free use of one ...