years to 70 years after death. Along with protecting Mickey for another 20 years, the copyright extension affected

about 400,000 books, movies, and songs.

Figure 13.4 illustrates how the total number of patent applications filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark

Office, as well as the total number of patents granted, surged in the mid-1990s with the invention of the

internet, and is still going strong today.

FIGURE 13.4 Patents Filed and Granted, 1981–2012 The number of applications filed for patents increased

substantially beginning in the 1990s, due in part to the invention of the internet, which has led to many other

inventions and to the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act. (Source: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/

taf/us_stat.htm)

While patents provide an incentive to innovate by protecting the innovator, they are not perfect. For example:

•

•

In countries that already have patents, economic studies show that inventors receive only one-third to
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