To patent or not to patent

Patents are the cornerstone of the knowledge economy, right? And to be in the league of innovative nations, GCC countries should move up the ranking tables of the number of patents and number of patents per capita etc, shouldn't they?

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor - or to someone assigned by him or her - usually for a limited period of time. This intellectual property prevents others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission. The inventor can then profit from the discovery by producing a good or service without being subject to the fierce competition of free-riders or, more often than not, can sell the right to an entrepreneur whose job is to commercialise the idea.

Whatever the specific terms, patents are said to be the institutional mechanism to provide a fair compensation to the lucky geniuses of the world and, even more importantly, to those who put in the effort and investment and take the risk to engage in innovative undertakings. Without biological and chemical patents, pharmaceutical laboratories would lose the core incentives and financing to do the required research.

The public policy debate surrounding patents has always been the trade-off between the fair protection from competition - and hence monopoly power - to be offered to the inventor as a private reward and the social cost from preventing others to use a valuable idea. Think about the treatment for many fatal or debilitating diseases for which medicines exist but are too expensive for the poor: the high price is necessary for labs to function and science to keep progressing but it does not really comfort those who are unnecessarily dying now.

Is that it? Is that the only policy debate that we should have on the topic? And, if so, what should be the position of the GCC countries? They are invariably at the bottom of the "innovation indicators" as understood by the number of patents filled in any given year. Should they target an entry in the top 20 of the most patented nations?

Chasing a good spot in the rankings does not often make sense outside sport. Sport is simple: you run or you swim faster than the others and you are clearly achieving what is expected. (OK, many sports are a bit more complex than that but that's the idea). In public policy and social sciences, things tend to be more complicated.

While success of some crucial industries hinge on IP, to limit the innovation thinking on patents is actually not innovative enough. The good old "do some research-patent-pocket the profit-reinvest" approach is still relevant but perhaps not the only paradigm in innovation and value creation.

First, the number of patents filed, like research spending, number of scientists employed, number of PhDs awarded, is only an input into the innovation process, not an output.

Even as a legally-sanctioned protection, patents are still a long way from being sufficient to turn ideas into valuable products and services, and then profit. Great American inventor, scientist and businessman, Thomas Edison is quoted as saying that his genius was "of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine".

Generating ideas, even those which actually work in practice, is the easy part, exploiting them profitably is harder. Given the local conditions in many GCC countries, a capability to generate patents will get us only halfway down the road.

Secondly, patents actually matter less than they used to. Many industries build their profit on innovative management methods, brand names and the speed at which they respond to or create customer need. Steven Johnson, US author and web creator, recently said in TIME magazine: "If I go to grad school and invent a better mousetrap, I've created value, which I can protect with a patent and capitalise on by selling my invention to consumers. But if someone else figures out a way to use my mousetrap to replace his much more expensive washing machine, he's created value as well. We tend to put the emphasis on the first kind of value creation because there are a small number of inventors who earn giant paydays from their mousetraps and thus become celebrities. But there are hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses that find value in these innovations by figuring out new ways to put them to use."

The technological and scientific lag that GCC countries have relative to the big powerhouses of this world should not be demoralising: plenty of opportunities exist for anyone with a creative mind to contribute to the value web and make a buck.

Over the last twelve months, the dark cloud of the world recession has blurred the future for all of us. But by the same token, those are times during which many things are reset: plenty of space to recreate new futures. In the next round, the investments made by GCC nations in education, IT and infrastructures could well pay off if people get their entrepreneurial creativity into gear. No need to get a patent for that.

Olivier Renard is an adviser at the Secretariat General of the Research Council of the Sultanate of Oman. The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Research Council or any other individual staff of the Secretariat.