Book Reviews

• Author: Harold L. Marquis
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7401900217
• Published date: 01 June 1974
• Date: 01 June 1974
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

BOOK

REVIEWS

Ward

S. Bowman,

Jr.,

Patent and Antitrust Law, A Legal

and Economic Analysis, Chicago: University of Chicago

Press

(1973), 256 pp.,

$10.50.

Professor Bowman has produced ahighly critical economic

analysis of the

antitrust

and patent misuse dogma upon which

the long standing judicial condemnation of certain

patent

license restrictions has been based. This is an important

work because it forces rethinking of the wisdom of the present

rules and their economic rationale. The first half of the book

is the most important because it contains the systematic

economic analysis. The

last

half of the book basically applies

the economic theory in a synthesis of the leading cases, but

does not significantly advance the state of the

antitrust

litera-

ture.

The author's assessment of

antitrust

and patent law is

strictly from the standpoint of the economic goal of efficiency

in serving consumers. Other economic goals, such as wealth

distribution and protection of small business, are shunted

aside as either inappropriate or illusory goals for

antitrust

and

patent

policy. While the economic goal of efficiency lends

itself to objective analysis, certain other economic, political

and social goals ought to be considered in forming policy.

Relegated to,

at

best, a subordinate goal of the patent system

is the broad dissemination of knowledge by encouraging in-

ventors to disclose their secrets through the

grant

of patents,

which is a goal

that

conceivably may be important to scientific

advancement.

In

examining the requirements of patentability, the author

argues

that

usefulness should not be a

statutory

requirement

as the marketplace will determine usefulness more reliably

than

patent

examiners.

Rather

he believes

that

non-obvious-

ness should be the sole criterion to

sort

out those kinds of

innovations

that

otherwise would not ue made. While

it

would be interesting to know how many

patent

applications

435