The standard view of patents emphasizes their dynamic efficiency. It considers that, by providing firms with incentives to invest in R&D and to disclose their knowledge, patents encourage innovation and increase social welfare in the long run. Yet, a growing body of literature opposes this view...

In France patents go to the first to file the patent application and not to the first to invent. Yet, this system is combined with a rule of prior user right that grants to first inventors the right to continue to use and commercialise their invention although it has been patented by another...