Paper clips and patents

Interesting tale of the dominance of the Gem clip over all the others. I'll put forth a less story-driven potential explanation, though: the Gem clip flourished because it was one of the few which was unpatented (they patented the machine but not the clip shape itself). As always, there are benefits and costs to stronger content protection, and neither stronger nor weaker protection can be said to be pro-innovation. It all depends where on the curve you are.