University of Toronto Patent Colloquium, 2014 James Bessen

Most gain often comes from sequential improvements

Years to first commercialization Invention Year first patentable Years to first commercialization Years to "shakeout" Total years ball point pen 1938 7 28 35 DDT 1874 68 12 80 fluorescent lighting 1859 74 2 76 freon refrigerant 1931 36 38 gyrocompass 1852 56 55 111 jet engine 1791 153 17 170 magnetic recording 1898 41 26 67 nylon and perlon 1930 9 34 43 penicillin 1928 16 23 radar 1904 31 48 radio 1900 15 51 66 space rockets 1925 19 42 streptomycin 1921 46 television 1905 33 transistor 1948 13 20 xerography 1937 25 zipper 1891 32 63 95

Free knowledge sharing, 19th century Steam engine (UK) Blast furnaces (UK) Bessemer steel (US) Textile technology, (UK, US, Japan, France) Steamboat (US) Agriculture (US, UK, Denmark) Clocks, civil engineers, paper, furniture, airplane...

Coexistence: common, but temporary Diffusion curves (Mansfield 1981)

Sewing machine patent pool: slows patenting

Sewing machine patent pool: decreases innovation

Most SEPs AFTER basic standard