A recent New York Times Editorial Board opinion urged comprehensive reform of America’s patent system by focusing on a few examples of what the Board views as “bad” drug-related patents. Unfortunately, the opinion does not define what makes a patent good or bad. Nor do the sources relied on by the Board provide open access to the underlying data on which such judgments are made. Calls for improving America’s patent system should be based on more than unverifiable grievances. Real reform will take more than just suggestions that nibble around the edges of our current patent system in response to broad allegations of unfairness. Real reform needs objective standards for measuring patent quality that can guide improvements. Such evidence about patent quality may show that fundamental aspects of our patent system must be updated to keep it relevant for today’s innovation economy.
Although these charts do not represent a rigorous analysis, they do show two things. First, patent activity appears to have a relatively consistent correlation to economic activity. Whether Lincoln was correct that there is a cause relationship or whether this is simply an effect relationship can be debated, but the existence of a relationship seems to be well-established. Second, patent litigation also appears to be following the longer-term trend of the relationship between patent activity and economic activity. The recent jump in the number of patent lawsuits filed, while significant in the short term, does not appear to represent a significant deviation from what would be expected based on longer-term historical trends.