Legal scholars, economists, activists, policymakers, industries, and trade organizations have held differing views on<unk>  and engaged in contentious debates on the subject. Critical perspectives emerged in the nineteenth century that were especially based on the principles of free trade. Contemporary<unk> s have echoed those arguments, claiming that<unk>  block innovation and waste resources that could otherwise be used productively, and also block access to an increasingly important "commons" of enabling technologies (a phenomenon called the tragedy of the anticommons), apply a "one size fits all" model to industries with differing needs, that is especially unproductive for industries other than chemicals and pharmaceuticals and especially unproductive for the software industry. Enforcement by<unk> trolls of poor quality<unk>  has led to<unk>  of the<unk> office as well as the system itself.<unk>  on pharmaceuticals have also been a particular focus of<unk> , as the high prices they enable puts life-saving drugs out of reach of many people. Alternatives to<unk>  have been proposed, such Joseph Stiglitz's suggestion of providing "prize money" (from a "prize fund" sponsored by the government) as a substitute for the lost profits associated with abstaining from the monopoly given by a<unk>  These debates are part of a larger discourse on intellectual property protection which also reflects differing perspectives on copyright.
Criticism of patents
Patient trade-off
Patient group directions
Cost sharing
Component causes
Public security
Guaranteed issue
Prescription charges