For many years patent output has been the standard measurement of innovative success. The Battle over Patents: History and Politics of Innovation, edited by Stephen Haber and Naomi Lamoreaux, comprises eight case studies from contributors representing a variety of disciplines, including law. The essays focus on the importance of patent law in American history. Incorporating abundant records and data, Zorina Khan’s adept Inventing Ideas: Patents, Prizes, and the Knowledge Economy contends that other countries have adopted and adapted the American patent system, that the American system has been less exclusive to economic class than some other systems (such as the UK’s), and that patents are a relevant system and offer more incentive than prizes for innovation.
Vaclav Smil is a prolific writer, and he packs many facts and figures into Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure. In a dense introduction, he provides background on patent output research, including that due to minor variations and improvements, arguing that patent numbers are not a perfect measure of innovation output. He devotes the largest portion of the book to failures. A related book is Michael Brian Schiffer’s Spectacular Flops: Game-Changing Technologies that Failed. Smil and Schiffer explore similar inventions and reasons for failures, and the books have in common discussion of the relationship of novelty of invention and reality of resources.
