PrepTest 139, Section 3, Question 21
Passage A is from a 2007 article on(491 more words not shown)
Passage A(300 more words not shown)
Passage B(199 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(21 more words not shown)
- AMost patents for(11 more words not shown)
- BSoftware companies that(15 more words not shown)
- CSome proprietary vendors(6 more words not shown)
- DSoftware innovation would(9 more words not shown)
- EThe main beneficiaries(10 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
B claims that patents generally impede software innovation. What if patent protection also helps make innovation financially worthwhile? Developing and improving software takes resources. If protection lets a company earn more from its inventions, it can provide an incentive to undertake that work and money to invest in further improvements.
What we’re looking for
That would challenge B's one-directional claim. We don't need to prove that every patent helps innovation, or that software without patents cannot earn money. A reason patents can encourage development is enough to cast doubt.
Working the answers
- A
Knowing that patents last twenty years or less doesn't tell us whether they encourage or hinder innovation during that period. Duration alone doesn't supply the missing connection.
- B
More reliable products from companies that do not patent would favor the side opposing patents, if anything. It does not establish a benefit of patent protection for innovation.
- C
A vendor's self-interested motive for opposing patents doesn't show its position about innovation is false. The question concerns patents' effects, not whether every opponent is altruistic.
- DCorrect
If innovation would be less profitable without patents, patents provide a financial benefit that can encourage companies to innovate. That gives us a reason to question the claim that they generally get in the way.
- E
Who receives the benefits is a different issue. Large corporations rather than individual inventors could benefit under either system; that comparison doesn't show whether patents promote or impede innovation.
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