2011/21 | LEM Working Paper Series | |
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Knowledge Sharing among Inventors: Some Historical Perspectives |
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James Bessen and Alessandro Nuvolari |
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Keywords | ||
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technological change, knowledge sharing, collective invention, patents
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JEL Classifications | ||
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N70, O33, O34
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Abstract | ||
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This chapter documents instances from past centuries where inventors
freely shared knowledge of their innovations with other inventors. It
is widely believed that such knowledge sharing is largely a recent
development, as in open source software. Our survey shows, instead,
that innovators have long practiced "collective invention", including
in such key technologies as steam engines, iron and steel production
and textile machinery. Generally, innovators? behavior was
substantially richer than the heroic portrayal often found in
textbooks and museums. Knowledge sharing sometimes coexisted with
patenting, at other times, not, suggesting the importance of public
policy that accommodates knowledge sharing to foster cumulative
innovation.
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