Do Lawyers Play a Role in Patent Reform?

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There are many economists who have started to question whether the current intellectual property regime of copyrights and patents is too restrictive. And my worry would be not so much that lawyers don't think about it, but I wouldn't necessarily expect them to. There's indications that they do have an active role in raising questions about whether we really want to have this kind of extensive patent reform.

Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the market for lawyers and the role of lawyers in the political process. Drawing on a new co-authored book, First Thing We Do, Let's Deregulate All the Lawyers, Winston argues that restrictions on the supply of lawyers and increases in demand via government regulation artificially boost lawyers' salaries. Deregulation of the supply (by eliminating licensing) would lower price and encourage innovation.