预期理论着眼于减少后续发明竞赛中的重复投入,主张宽的专利宽度。发明竞赛理论与预期理论针锋相对,认为窄的专利宽度可以激励后续发明竞赛。租金耗散理论则提出了被预期理论所忽视的问题,即宽专利诞生前的发明竞赛同样导致专利租金耗散。本文认为,预期理论虽然曾一度主导着对专利宽度的研究、甚至主导了一些国家的专利政策,对专利宽度的研究要引入新的变量和新的视角,才能寻得促进新兴技术领域创新的最佳专利宽度。

In order to reduce the repetitive investment in the competition for subsequent improvements to the patented technology, the prospect theory implies that widening patents scope is necessary for the initial inventors. On the contrary, the post-invention competition theory suggests that narrowing patent scope could retain more incentives for subsequent improvements. Rent dissipation theory proposes that invention competition prior to the granting of broad patents would probably result in rent dissipation; it has not been paid the adequate attention by prospect theory. It is suggested that although prospect theory has dominated the academic research on patent scope as well as patent policy in some countries, new factors and perspectives should be considered for pursuing optimal patent scope in order to promote the innovation in the new fields of technology.