There is simply not enough empirical evidence to support your assertions. Every time I&#x27;ve asked for evidence to support similar assertions, I&#x27;ve gotten nothing but vague anecdotes or historical examples that have been debunked.<p>This is unfortunate, because there are plenty of empirical studies showing the benefits and costs of patents (search ssrn.com for &quot;patents&quot; and focus on the studies that use economic data). The upshot is, to date nobody has been able to say the one outweighs the other largely because they are not directly comparable.