Macro Inventions, Micro Inventions, and the Patent System’s Contribution to Industrial Growth
This essay builds on the insights shared by Professor Doo Eal Kim (Myongji University, Department of Economics) in his interview,
“[In-depth Analysis of the Nobel Prize in Economics: There Is No Growth Without Debate in Korea]” (Understanding, YouTube, Oct. 22, 2025),
which discussed the economic utility of micro inventions and the cultural foundations of growth during the British Industrial Revolution.
On this foundation, the essay explores how the patent system connected the disclosure of macro inventions with the proliferation of micro inventive activity, thus contributing structurally to industrial development.
1. The Hidden Engine of Growth: The Utility of Micro Inventions
Professor Joel Mokyr has emphasized that the essence of technological progress lies not only in great discoveries but also in the continuous accumulation of small-scale improvements.
While a macro invention—such as James Watt’s steam engine—can ignite a new technological paradigm, it is the myriad of micro inventions, those small yet critical refinements, that transform potential into productivity.
Without solving practical issues like steam leakage or pressure stability, Watt’s invention could never have been commercialized.
Thus, the incremental, ground-level improvements made by anonymous engineers and artisans became the true alchemy of industrial growth.
2. Britain’s “Culture of Growth” and the Ecology of Knowledge Sharing
Mokyr attributes Britain’s leadership in the Industrial Revolution to what he calls the “Culture of Growth.”
Unlike other nations where innovation remained confined to isolated geniuses, Britain cultivated a scientific mindset—a belief that problems could be solved through universal principles rather than mere craftsmanship.
This intellectual shift linked scientific reasoning with industrial practice, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of innovation.
Institutions like the Lunar Society embodied this open exchange of ideas. Scientists, inventors, and reformers engaged in discussions that crossed disciplinary boundaries, while the Republic of Letters fostered transnational dialogue through correspondence.
Such openness and culture of critical debate were the social incubators where micro inventions flourished.
3. The Institutional Alchemy of Patents: From Disclosure to Diffusion
Yet, for micro inventions to spread across society, a mechanism was required to mitigate information asymmetry and institutionalize the sharing of technical knowledge.
Here, the patent system played a pivotal role.
The English Statute of Monopolies (1624) transformed patents from royal privileges into rights contingent on public disclosure.
By the mid-18th century, court precedents like Baker v. James (1753) shifted jurisdiction from the Privy Council to the common law courts, embedding patents within a framework of legal transparency and social legitimacy.
Crucially, the system required inventors to disclose their technical details in specifications.
In doing so, a macro invention was converted into publicly accessible knowledge, which later innovators could refine and build upon.
The publication of patent documents thus formed the institutional feedback loop that enabled continuous micro inventive activity.
In this sense, the patent system functioned as an “institutional alchemy”—granting temporary exclusivity in exchange for permanent contribution to the knowledge commons.
4. Modern Implications: Reconstructing the Ecosystem of Collaborative Innovation
The same dynamic persists in today’s frontier industries—AI, biotechnology, and semiconductors.
A macro invention, such as deep learning or next-generation chip architecture, only achieves its transformative power through layers of micro inventive refinement.
In this continuum, the patent system remains the infrastructure balancing protection and disclosure.
Publicly available patent documents now function as a Knowledge Graph—a semantic network connecting inventors, technologies, citations, and applications.
AI systems can learn not just from individual documents but from the relationships and evolutionary pathways embedded within them.
In this way, patent data has become the training corpus for AI-assisted invention, echoing the very role that 18th-century patent disclosures played in fueling the Industrial Revolution.
5. Conclusion: Growth Through Disclosure and the Culture of Innovation
In essence, macro inventions are the sparks of innovation, micro inventions are the winds that spread the flame,
and the patent system is the oxygen that keeps it alive.
When openness, critique, and continuous improvement converge,innovation ceases to be an isolated event and becomes a sustainable social system.
Reinvigorating the culture of growth today requires reinforcing the patent system’s role as a forum for knowledge disclosure and debate—
for it is precisely here that the next industrial revolution will find its roots.
