Search results for ""author william kingston""

Beyond Intellectual Property explores the many means by which information is protected. Based on thorough empirical research in the US and Europe as well as practical experience of economic innovation, it goes far beyond the traditional realm of intellectual property (IP). It also identifies the need for urgent reform of present arrangements and suggests practical ways of achieving this.New instruments for protecting investment in information have been historically important for initiating long-wave economic cycles. William Kingston argues that although IP has been one such method, it is increasingly proving ineffective because its laws have been progressively shaped by the interests that benefit from them, rather than by visions of the public good. He demonstrates that repair will require such visions, which would also underwrite radically new forms of information protection.This insightful book defines, describes and distinguishes between information, knowledge and meaning, and explains why information now needs changed forms of legal protection if it is to be of genuine economic value. As such, it will be of great interest to economic policy-makers, students of IP and innovation, patent agents and attorneys.

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'It is a serious piece of scholarship. Integrating economic history, economic thought, patent-hoarding, venture capital and the changing global economy, Kingston asks if modern capitalism might be an internally inconsistent system. Like Schumpeter, he is concerned that creative innovation might be stagnating into institutional ossification. It is an interesting argument, well presented, cross-disciplinary and thought-provoking.'- David Reisman, University of Surrey, UK and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Capitalism has been sustained by inherited moral values that are now all but exhausted. A unique combination of a new belief in individualism and a long tradition of property rights had traditionally ensured that self-interested action also produced public benefit. However, these rights, including the laws underwriting economic and financial innovation and parliamentary democracy, were gradually captured and shaped by those who could benefit most from them. This fascinating book shows that the outcome is a reduced ability to generate real wealth combined with exceptional inequality, as well as a worldwide breach of the vital trust between voters and their representatives. Capitalism's injuries are both self-inflicted and fatal. William Kingston uniquely deals with capitalism from a property rights standpoint, providing the first convincing explanation of economic cycles in terms of changes to these rights. The lucid exploration of the historical evolution of property includes a remarkable precursor of modern capitalism in medieval culture and pays particular attention to intellectual property. The book also calls attention to the harm that inaccurate measurement of economic activity can cause, both at the micro-level (auditing of corporations) and macro-level (the Kuznets GDP/GNP system). In conclusion, it argues that the exceptional levels of inequality today have been caused primarily by allowing financiers to escape from the laws that traditionally prevented them from 'generating money from nothing'. Challenging the orthodox thinking, this is an essential book for economists and political scientists in academia, the public sector and industry. It offers an imperative warning that capitalism's next crash is coming sooner rather than later.

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This highly original book represents a major advance in the use of patents to compare countries' technological competitiveness. It tabulates and analyses 280,000 United States patents from countries across the world over a ten year period. Specifically, these patents were granted to 'not-for-profit' entities (mainly universities and research institutes), firms with no more than 500 employees, or to individual inventors. For each of these groups, the book provides statistics and discussion on how long patents are kept in force, the extent to which they are cited, and how far inventions made in different countries are in fact owned in the United States.Inter-country comparisons are provided between groupings of large and small advanced countries and between the sizeable number of countries for which patents are only just beginning to become economically important. The fact that all these patents have been subjected to the same examination process facilitates genuine like-for-like comparisons. Some of the more interesting emergent international differences in inventions are also explored. This book will provide a mine of reliable data for econometric studies of international competitiveness.Believed to be the first ever measurement of the patentable output of universities and research institutes worldwide because it provides the first fully international comparisons, this book will be invaluable to: patent offices and attorneys, university technical transfer offices, national industrial development agencies, as well as economists with an interest in international trade and technology.

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