<p>Patents are not considered non-rival good. What you are referring to is probably that <em>what is protected by a patent</em> is a non-rival good, which would indeed be correct if there was not a regulator.</p>
<p>Patents are made on new inventions. We can consider inventions as new ideas that are non-obvious and useful (for instance in Netherlands <a href="https://www.government.nl/topics/intellectual-property/question-and-answer/what-are-the-criteria-for-patenting-my-invention" rel="nofollow noreferrer">these</a> are the criteria for getting a patent). As every other idea, inventions are non-rival: everyone could use them without preventing others from doing so. This is essentially the reason why patents are required, so that profits for inventors are increased (competition is prevented) and firms have more incentives to invest in innovation.</p>

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2023-07-03T15:40:49.003Z
2023-07-03T15:40:49.003Z
Don
<p>I mean, if a company received a patent for a particular invention that they did, others can't use the <em>same</em> patent. They can try to imitate the company and eventually receive a patent for their invention, but this patent will be different.</p>

<microeconomics><economic-growth>
Why is a patent considered as a non-rival good?
Marta
# Why is a patent considered as a non-rival good?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-03)

I mean, if a company received a patent for a particular invention that they did, others can't use the *same* patent. They can try to imitate the company and eventually receive a patent for their invention, but this patent will be different.

**Tags:** microeconomics, economic-growth

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-07-03. Score: 1

Patents are not considered non-rival good. What you are referring to is probably that *what is protected by a patent* is a non-rival good, which would indeed be correct if there was not a regulator.

Patents are made on new inventions. We can consider inventions as new ideas that are non-obvious and useful (for instance in Netherlands [these](https://www.government.nl/topics/intellectual-property/question-and-answer/what-are-the-criteria-for-patenting-my-invention) are the criteria for getting a patent). As every other idea, inventions are non-rival: everyone could use them without preventing others from doing so. This is essentially the reason why patents are required, so that profits for inventors are increased (competition is prevented) and firms have more incentives to invest in innovation.


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