Social Innovation

72 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2014

See all articles by Peter Lee

Peter Lee

University of California, Davis - School of Law

Date Written: December 5, 2014

Abstract

This Article provides the first legal examination of the immensely valuable but underappreciated phenomenon of social innovation. Innovations such as cognitive behavioral therapy, microfinance, and strategies to reduce hospital-based infections greatly enhance social welfare yet operate completely outside of the patent system, the primary legal mechanism for promoting innovation. This Article draws on empirical studies to elucidate this significant kind of innovation and explore its divergence from the classic model of technological innovation championed by the patent system. In so doing, it illustrates how patent law exhibits a rather crabbed, particularistic conception of innovation. Among other characteristics, innovation in the patent context is individualistic, arises from a discrete origin and history, and prioritizes novelty. Much social innovation, however, arises from communities rather than individual inventors, evolves from multiple histories, and entails expanding that which already exists from one context to another. These attributes, moreover, apply in large part to technological innovation as well, thus revealing how patent law relies upon and reinforces a rather distorted view of the innovative processes it seeks to promote. Moving from the descriptive to the prescriptive, this Article cautions against extending exclusive rights to social innovations and suggests several nonpatent mechanisms for accelerating this valuable activity. Finally, it examines the theoretical implications of social innovation for patent law, thus helping to contribute to a more holistic framework for innovation law and policy.

Keywords: social innovation, innovation, patent law, intellectual property, innovation dynamics, government funding, prizes, nonprofits, social capital, infrastructure, commons, theory of the firm, user innovation

Suggested Citation

Lee, Peter, Social Innovation (December 5, 2014). Washington University Law Review, Vol. 92, No. 1, 2014, UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 407, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2534606

Peter Lee (Contact Author)

University of California, Davis - School of Law ( email )

Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall
Davis, CA CA 95616-5201
United States

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