Innovation Theory and Intellectual Property

Intellectual property doctrine relies on often unstated assumptions about how people create new art or new technologies. This seminar will provide an overview of theories of innovation developed in several fields, including economics, psychology, and sociology of science and technology.  The seminar will focus on understanding each disciplinary approach to innovation and analyzing efforts to incorporate these theories of innovation into the design of intellectual property law (patents, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets).  We will begin by examining traditional economic approaches to innovation and discussing how these insights have been incorporated into intellectual property theory.  We will then question the adequacy of these traditional approaches to innovation in light of findings from psychology regarding intrinsic motivation and creativity, and from sociology regarding commons production.  We will then discuss whether and in what ways current findings in economics, psychology, and sociology should lead us to recalibrate our intellectual property system.  We will end by considering other tools available to foster innovation, including government grants and prizes.