GMAT阅读冲750 Test 6 passage 2单词、词组预习，文章翻译

GMAT阅读冲750 Test 6 passage 2单词、词组预习，文章翻译

The system of patent-granting, which confers temporary monopolies for the exploitation of new technologies, was originally established as an incentive to the pursuit of risky new ideas. Yet studies of the most 

(5) patent-conscious business of all—the semiconductor industry—suggest that firms do not necessarily become more innovative as they increase their patenting activity. Ziedonis and Hall, for example, found that investment in research and development (a reasonable 

(10) proxy for innovation) did not substantially increase between 1982 and 1992, the industry’s most feverish period of patenting. Instead, semiconductor firms simply squeezed more patents out of existing research and development expenditures. 

Moreover, Ziedonis and

(15) Hall found that as patenting activity at semiconductor firms increased in the 1980’s, the consensus among industry employees was that the average quality of their firms’ patents declined. Though patent quality is a difficult notion to measure, the number of times a

(20) patent is cited in the technical literature is a reasonable yardstick, and citations per semiconductor patent did decline during the 1980’s. This decline in quality may be related to changes in the way semiconductor firms managed their patenting process: rather than patenting

(25) to win exclusive rights to a valuable new technology, patents were filed more for strategic purposes, to be used as bargaining chips to ward off infringement suites or as a means to block competitors’ products.

为新技术开发提供短期垄断的专利授予制度起初建立的目的是激励追求具有风险性的新想法。然而,最具专利意识的行业一一半导体行业的研究发现,公司增加专利活动并不一定会变得更具有创新能力。例如,车多尼斯和霍尔发现研发的投资(一种合理的创新指标)在1982年至1992年间没有大幅增长,而该时期正是行业最热衷于专利的时期。相反,半导体公司只能从现有的研发费用中挤出钱来做专利。

而且,车多尼斯和霍尔发现20世纪80年代,当专利活动在半导体公司里增多时,员工一致认为他们公司的平均专利质量有所下降。虽然专利质量难以评估,但一项专利在技术文献中被引用的次数可作为准绳。在20世纪80年代,每项半导体专利被引用的次数确实下降了。质量的下降可能与半导体公司改变管理专利的方式有关:申请专利不是为了赢取一项有价值的新技术的专有权,而是出于战略目的,作为避开侵权的谈判筹码,或作为阻碍对手产品的手段。