In his new book, Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The Organizational Logic of Intellectual Property, John Barnett draws on an intellectual toolbox consisting of economic theory, economic and legal history, and political economy, to show that significant reductions in the strength of patent protection are likely to have unwelcome consequences for innovation and competition policy. Counterintuitively, weakening patents can raise entry barriers and shelter incumbents by disadvantaging firms that are rich in ideas but poor in the capital and expertise required to convert ideas into commercially viable products and services. The result is an innovation ecosystem in which research and development and its commercialization tend to take place within integrated financing, production, and distribution environments that can only be feasibly maintained by a small handful of large firms. By contrast, robust IP protections enable innovation ecosystems that support a variety of more‐ and less‐integrated structures for funding and extracting value from R&D investments.