Abraham Lincoln’s famous description of our patent system’s merger of invention’s “fire” with “thefuel of interest” poetically describes commercialization, our innovation ecosystem’s prosaic journey from patent-to-product. The patent system protects innovation’s early stage development and promotes technological progress by publicizing patents’ content. It carefully balances exclusivity with technological progress. Because the system’s tendency is to tilt too far towards patent holder protection then not far enough, patent law’s history of congressional and judicial tinkering has repeatedly tried to adjust and readjust that balance.
