The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently hosted USC Gould School of Law Professor Jonathan Barnett to deliver a talk on the critical role of patents in fueling innovation, especially for independent inventors, start-ups and small businesses.
Barnett, who is the author of The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property, published by Oxford University Press, emphasized how strengthening the “intellectual property envelope” can unlock economic growth — a mission aligned with the USPTO’s focus as America’s innovation agency, the USPTO wrote after the visit.
The talk mirrored the message in his book, where Barnett warns that weakening patent and copyright protections risks favoring large, vertically integrated firms over smaller creators and inventors by undermining incentives to invest in future innovation.
Barnett is an expert in antitrust, intellectual property, and corporate and business law, with a focus on innovation policy and strategy in technology markets. He is director of the law school’s Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program and the Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law.
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