The development of new inventions

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct74% picked this

   Financial reward is the only incentive that will be effective in motivating people to

   Why this is right

   This sounds strong, but when we see conditional answers, we can just ask ourselves if the author was making that move. This looks like this: Motivate inventing ? Financial reward ~Financial reward ? ~Motivate Inventing The author was definitely going from "if you don't have a financial incentive, you aren't going to invent", so it seems very fair to say the author made this assumption. Her argument was essentially this: ~Patent ? ~Financial ? ~Inventions rights incentive She had established the first arrow in her evidence, but she was assuming that second arrow in order to draw her conclusion.

   Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   74%
2. B

   Too Specific1% picked this

   When an inventor sells patent rights to a manufacturer, the manufacturer makes less total profit on the invention

   We can't get into knowing whether inventor makes more / less / same than the manufacturer. All we are assuming is that the inventor at least sometimes has the potential to make a significant amount of profit (whatever would qualify as a financial incentive).

   1%
3. C

   Too Strong13% picked this

   Any costs incurred by a typical inventor in applying for patent rights are insignificant in comparison to the financial benefit

   Patents sometimes allow people to make a lot of money on their invention, but the author doesn't have to assume that this is typically the case. Hiring a patent lawyer might be very expensive (maybe there are other fees to pay as well), and it could be the case that most inventions (the typical case) don't make the inventor enough money to dwarf the up front costs and make them insignificant. The author isn't promising that obtaining patent rights will usually make an invention lucrative. He's just saying it creates that possibility (it creates a financial incentive).

   13%
4. D

   Out of Scope: should be granted9% picked this

   Patent rights should be granted only if an inventor’s product is not similar to another invention already

   The author never gets into any discussion of who should / shouldn't be granted patent rights.

   9%
5. E

   Too Specific: usually proportional3% picked this

   The length of a patent right is usually proportional to the costs involved in

   The author doesn't get into any specifics that commit him to assuming that the length of a patent right is usually proportional. The idea of "most" is almost always wrong in Necessary Assumption, because negating it gives you not-most. Would it really affect this author's argument if the length of patent rights were proportional to upfront costs 51% of the time vs. 49% of the time? Since negating this has no weakening effect on the argument, it's not necessary to assume it.

   3%