Monopoly right

A patent is a right granted by a government for any device, substance, method, or process that is new, inventive, and useful. The patent discloses the know-how for the invention. In return for this disclosure, the owner of a patent is given a 20 year period of monopoly rights to commercial returns from exploiting the invention. 

Patents have been described as "monopoly" rights because they totally exclude others from unlicensed use of the idea or invention during the patent period." They are unusual because in most other areas of the law, the federal government seeks to limit or eliminate monopolies. However, the main objective of patent law is to provide an incentive to reward innovation and... 

The Ethyl Corp. and DuPont held the TEL patent, and controlled the TEL monopoly. The company held the sole right to the only known material that could eliminate automotive knocking. And it used its influence in the gasoline market to manipulate prices. Over the next few years, the company wielded its monopoly power to maintain a 3—5 cent differential between its ethyl gasoline and the regular, unleaded gasoline sold by the rest of the industiy. 

All patents create a monopoly, guaranteeing the innovator s exclusive rights to use and sell the innovation for a fixed period of years. The monopoly revenue during this period is what provides the compensation for the initial investment. Ultimately, the market determines the size of the reward. 

Yet, over the years, there have been cases where patent owners have been found to have abused their patent rights in seeking to use the patent asset for more than its limited proper legal purpose. Attempts to extend a patent monopoly to cover unpatented goods, for example, have cast a cloud over the entire system. In today s environment of free enter-... 

As already mentioned, a patent gives the patentee a monopoly protection during its life, but it is up to the patentee to enforce his rights by detecting whether someone is infringing the patent, and then initiating legal action if the matter cannot be settled. 

Kitch, Edmund W. 1986. Patents Monopolies or Property Rights Research in Law and Economics. 8 31-50. 

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