Osgoode Hall Review of Law and Policy (OHRLP)

In this lecture the author argues that the system of granting a time-limited monopoly is a prudent means of obtaining disclosure of an invention. Yet the modern ramification of disclosure is the presence of a surfeit of information exacerbated by the globalization of commerce. The result is a marked increase in transaction costs. Transaction costs can be lessened to the extent that the scope of the right in question can be sharply delineated and the time-limit is not excessively generous. Unfortunately, the system of intellectual property rights currently in force ensures that there is a substantial amount of grit in the wheels of industry.

The Right Honourable Lord Justice Jacob. ""Is Intellectual Property the Grit in the Wheels of Industry?" (2009) 2 Osgoode Hall Rev.L.Pol'y.41.