Legal Monopoly in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Legal Monopoly in the USA - Essay Example Kaufmann and Francis (17) denote that a legal monopoly can take t government the form of a government monopoly. A government monopoly is whereby the state controls and owns a certain type of industry or production units. A good example of a government monopoly is the Postal Service of the US (USPS). This organization has a legal and exclusive right to deliver letters and mails to all the citizens of the United States. This is irrespective of any region they are in America. Kaufmann and Francis (19) also identify a government granted monopoly as an example of a legal monopoly. In this type of monopoly, the various interests of the private sector are protected from competition by laws of a state. Larson (26) denotes that activities of government granted monopolies are always constantly regulated for purposes of ensuring that they do not exploit their customers. Larson (27) goes on to denote that an example of a government granted monopoly is the patented inventions. Larson (29) defines a patent as an example of a limited monopoly, in which the holder of the patent is given an exclusive right to develop, sale, and use the patented invention for a particular period of time. The United States patent act lays out the regulations and the conditions to be met, for an individual to be given a patent right by the United States government. Originally, this law was enacted by the congress to protect the inventions of American inventors, and give them an exclusive right over the usage of their discoveries. This is contained in article 1, under section 8, and clause 8. Larson (32) goes on to denote that the main aim of granting patent rights is to encourage investors to invest their resources and time for purposes of building new discoveries and inventions which are useful to the country.