Open Cannabis Project: The Fight to Get Marijuana Patents Right

As we’ve discussed before on this blog, cannabis can be and is being patented. It is important to remember that patents are a balance between competing social values. In classical legal theory, patents exist to encourage innovation by offering innovators a limited monopoly in return for making inventions, and eventually releasing them to the public. Although the common law disfavors restraints on trade such as patents, the prevailing theory is that granting a partial monopoly is justified by the social benefit of innovation. This is known as the contract model of patents. Whether this model really produces net social utility in particular cases, or ever, is hotly debated.