Nonlinear Innovation

Contemporary intellectual property theory concentrates on the cumulative and incremental nature of innovation and creation. A prevalent image depicts authors and inventors as "standing on the shoulders of giants". This Article focuses on a different type of innovation that has been largely overlooked by IP theory and doctrine. Innovation in the domains of science and art that breaks up with convention, disputes existing paradigms, and "steps-off" giants' shoulders. I term it nonlinear innovation. Drawing on multidisciplinary research ranging from the history of science, through network analysis of radical inventions, to studies of creativity, this Article illuminates an embedded socio-cultural preference for incremental and linear novelty over paradigm-changing-innovation. It then inquires whether intellectual property doctrine reflects this bias, and whether the intellectual property regime can better foster nonlinear innovation. The examination yields a series of counter-intuitive recommendations concerning numerous patent and copyright law doctrines. On a broader level, the analysis suggests that expanding intellectual property's narrative of progress to accommodate nonlinear innovation, alongside cumulative innovation, could significantly contribute to the ecosystem of innovation and creation