Gridlock -- Not on the Beltway This Time

Understanding all of the ins and outs of intellectual property and the whole idea that an invention is property can make your head hurt.  It's one of those esoteric tasks that has been left to the patent cognoscenti for a very long time.  The down side of the, "let us worry about this" approach to intellectual property offered by many patent professionals is that the average entrepreneur, business owner, investor, and product manager is left scratching their collective heads after they've spent a lot of money and the cease and desist letter shows up anyway.

The Grid Lock Economy presents an engaging and compelling look at the politics and reality of intellectual property as an asset and the challenges this causes for innovators, inventors, the economy, and a host of other issues.  This book provides food for thought to help the rest of us understand why intellectual property issues are so daunting.  This is the latest entry from the Way Better Patents Reading List.



The Grid Lock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives by Michael Heller — Patent thickets, the tragedy of the commons, and hard issues in intellectual property and the politics of ownership.

(We have added the link to Amazon for two reasons.  First, we thought the covers were interesting and fun to look at and second, if you follow the link and buy the book Amazon throws us some change which helps us keep our product pricing low.)