This page contains a book (freely readable) written by Levine and Boldrin. Very enjoyable (as much as an economic book can be). The book is composed of ten chapters. I found particularly interesting Chapter 8: Does Intellectual Monopoly Increase Innovation? Here an excerpt from that chapter.
But does intellectual monopoly actually lead to greater innovation than competition?
From a theoretical point of view, the answer is murky. In the long-run, intellectual monopoly provides increased revenues to those that innovate, but also makes innovation more costly. Innovations generally build on existing innovations. While each individual innovator may earn more revenue from innovating if he has an intellectual monopoly, he also faces a higher cost of innovating: he must pay off all those other monopolists owning rights to existing innovations. Indeed, in the extreme case when each new innovation requires the use of lots of previous ideas, the presence of intellectual monopoly may bring innovation to a screeching halt.
David's Levine home page also has interesting links and materials.
