R Street Institute
Policy Studies Technology and Innovation

U.S. Patents and Competitiveness with China

by Charles Duan
Feb 27, 2019
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Author

Charles Duan
Charles Duan
Former Senior Fellow

Key Points

Claims that China is innovating because of stronger patent protections misinterpret the facts. China is stimulating technological growth through government investment, subsidies, and prizes; the numbers show that patents are playing a relatively small role.

Issues of “intellectual property theft” in China do not warrant stronger U.S. patent protection. The “intellectual property” that is the subject of theft is trade secrets, not patents.

If the United States wants to accelerate technological development in the same way that China is doing, we should encourage competition, not more patents. Competition among U.S. firms has always been the driver of technological advances.

Press Release

R Street Policy Short: U.S. Patents and Competitiveness with China

Introduction

Current discussions of patent policy often invoke comparisons with China. In particular, they call for more powerful enforcement of patents domestically to compete with innovation in China. And it is true that China is enjoying massive technological growth in fields such as artificial intelligence and 5G communications.

But, in fact, that growth has very little to do with patent protection, either in the United States or in China. And, for this reason, incautious action to broaden patent protection and enforcement in the United States could ultimately harm, rather than help, domestic competitiveness.

Read the full study here.

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