Book Review

An Innovation-Based Road Map for Legal Reform

Reviewed by Sean Gates

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission analyzed the patent system though the lens of competition. The resulting report developed a set of ten recommendations aimed at improving the patent system. The report generated considerable interest. In fact, the following year the National Research Council of the National Academies issued a report with similar recommendations.

In Innovation for the 21st Century, Professor Michael Carrier uses the lens of innovation to develop his own ten recommendations. Like the FTC and NRC reports, Carrier recommends changes to the patent system. But unlike those reports, Carrier does not limit his recommendations to one area of law. Instead, he applies an innovation lens broadly to copyright and antitrust law as well as to patent law, recommending reforms to protect and promote innovation in all three areas.

Carrier believes that certain trends in the U.S. legal system threaten innovation. He aims to reverse those trends. As he puts it...