The Federal Trade Commission's 2003 innovation report revealed an interesting fact: the pharmaceutical industry is largely satisfied with today's patent system while the electronics, software and Internet industries are not. This article suggests that a difference in governing law accounts for...

For much of the past decade, scholars and others have criticized the U.S. patent system for a variety of legal, economic, political and practical reasons. I have been one voice in that chorus of criticism, with four previous articles over five years. Unfortunately, pending bills for so-called...