Establishing a new intellectual property rights regime in the United States: Origins, content and problems

Abstract Major changes have been made over the past 20 years in the US intellectual property rights regime. These include the fact that the regime has been opened up to software patents and to business models, on one hand, and to living entities on the other—all within a general environment marked by the relaxation of patentability criteria. They have resulted in major changes in the US system of innovation—more specifically in the increasing privatisation of knowledge domains and activities that were previously public. The changes result from the combined effects of a response to US perceptions of increased foreign competition, of the emergence of major new technological opportunities in biotechnology and ICT, and of a series of regulatory changes that have paved the way for the financial sector’s increased involvement, via direct investments in firms whose main activity is comprised of R&D. Contemporary doubts about the viability of these changes reflect, the harmful long-term economic effect of the privatisation of basic knowledge (especially in the biopharmaceutical sector) and the difficulties that the financial sector has faced in ensuring the sustainability of the necessary pre-conditions that allow for the development of innovation.