The NEP-HIS blog has a nice %26lt;A HREF="http://nephist.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/to-patent-or-not-to-patent/"%26gt;discussion%26lt;/A%26gt; of a nice paper by Alessandro Nuvolari and James Sumner on innovations in the beer industry before 1850. There was rapid innovation without recourse to patents, even though patenting was an option to innovators.
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