Imitation, Innovation, and Patent System

Imitation can significantly drive down the price of a product after the formula is known, making it difficult for the innovator to recoup their research and development costs. The economic theory of patents suggests giving a monopoly to the innovator to recoup costs, but the actual patent law does not reflect this. One suggestion is to have a patent system with varying durations (3, 10, and 20 years) based on the amount of money spent on research and development costs, to better align with the economic theory.